In Dundee, Scotland a family has been torn apart because their children are overweight. This has caused a big controversy. The couple is expecting their seventh child and is at risk of getting the child taken after having their fifth and sixth children taken by social services. The family was given warnings that their family needed to slim down. Their children range in age from 3 to 13 and range in weight from 56 pounds to 220 pounds.
These parents do not drink or do drugs. They just happen to be a big family, that can be noisy and is prone to being overweight says the couple’s attorney Kathleen Price. In Dundee and other areas in the U.K. treat obesity as abuse. Tam Fry, a member of the National Obesity Forum, states that more council are viewing obesity as abuse, but should not be on the same scale as sexual or physical abuse. She also states that she believes that authorities and social services should be helping this family by placing the children in the hospital and getting their weight down where it should be.
The couple first contacted social services to get help managing their children. That is when they were ordered to send their kids to dance and soccer lessons. Social services also provided paid supervisors that monitored the family and provided a healthy direction to go in. The mother states she doesn’t own a deep-fryer, all her food is home-cooked, and the kids aren’t given junk food. She also states that children can carry some “puppy fat” but can lose it as they grow. She believes that her kids are not being given a chance to lose this “puppy fat”.
I am a little split on this story. I completely agree that kids need to exercise and be healthy. But I am not sure I agree that they should have been taken away from their parents. There isn’t a whole lot of detail in the story about how much help these parents did actually received. I believe that a health advisor or dietitian could’ve came into their home and “taught” them how to eat healthier. I honestly believe that kids are a reflection of how they are raised and what they go through as children. I am bigger girl and I believe that if I was taught as a child how to eat right it wouldn’t be so hard for me now. I know what I am supposed to eat but I am just not used to it so it makes it harder for me. I do try to help my children make healthier decisions. I do not fry a lot of food, hardly ever actually.
My children are very active. Granted, I am not always financially able to put them in soccer or dance but they do play outside a lot and we do visit the park when the weather allows us to. They ride their bikes almost every day again as the weather permits. I truly hope that my kids continue to make healthy decisions as they get older. Our family does have a long list of health problems, a lot of which can be prevented by healthy eating and exercise. I wish someone would have been there for me when I was younger so I would have had the knowledge to make better decisions about food.
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When I visited a lot of European countries I noticed I rarely saw an overweight person. It's simply not an issue there for the most part. They eat a lot healthier and exercise non-stop. So, when they see a family that is insanely obese they probably don't understand why. Some of it is poor dietary decisions but a lot of is is hereditary. Some people can diet their whole lives and still be overweight. I don't think it's good to be ripping families apart over weight. A traumatic event like that would probably only trigger an eating binge and the children would probably gain even more weight. Very interesting story!
ReplyDeleteI've only seen one case where I'd have thought it a good idea to take the children away because they were overweight.
ReplyDeleteImagine this: a little girl, not quite three feet tall, almost four years old, weighs 97 pounds. Her little brother, about two and a half feet tall, eighteen months old, weighs 60 pounds. Their mother, rather than giving them hugs and playing with them, bribes them with food to leave her alone.
That's the only type of case where I think it's justified for the state to step in: when children become morbidly obese because of parental neglect, such as the above.