Over the weekend we were shuttling between our town and another big city on some errands. During one of the drives, me and my wife got into an interesting discussion on obese children and their parents’ mentality. The cause of the discussion was a family of 5 (3 obese children with 2 obese parents) who ordered a huge lunch at one of the fast food outlets where we stopped for coffee. I will try to pen a few thoughts that churned out of the discussion.
What are parents of already obese, 8~10 year old kids thinking when the kids are gorging on 1/2 pound burgers and massive amounts of Coca Cola? Don’t they worry about the potentially life-threating medical conditions that their kids can develop in future if they continue to pile on fat? It’s not like “oh..I didn’t notice”…especially when you have a 8~10 year old kid weighing 200+ pounds. Kids don’t become obese overnight…it takes years of bad-food-habits. So if you notice your child storing a lot of fat, and you know that it’s not good, and even after this you encourage (or do not discourage) junk food, what is it if it’s not criminal negligence? What divine intervention do these parents need to make them start telling their kids about the importance of good health?
You can choose the best education for your kids, live in the best neighborhood, get them the best clothes, make them spelling-bee champions, make them super-money-smart….but if you let your 
baby grow to 200+ pounds in the first 8 years of his/her life, then you have done nothing less than ruining a life.
Blame it on the nonstop advertising on TV? How convenient.
Some food (healthy) for thought - read this story about a 218 pound 8 year old kid on MSNBC. The photograph alongside is from that story.
And now lets continue with some interesting money articles published this week.
- 24 Signs That You Could be in Financial Trouble #22: Investing Your Money Inappropriately by Jeremy @ Generation X Finance. Find some sound investing advice here. This excerpt will make you read the rest of it:
Having the ability to save and invest money is a great start but that is only half the battle. You can save a lot of money yet do considerable damage to your finances by not investing it appropriately for your situation.
- 5 Simple Ways You Can Create Competition that will Benefit Consumers by Ben @ Money Smart Life. Read what you can do as a consumer to increase the competitive spirit between businesses and benefit in the long run.
- If Personal Finance Were A 4 Year Course in High School by Devin Wanzor @ Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. Devin is a guest blogger on Jim’s blog and has put together an interesting syllabus for a 4-year personal finance program. Check if you can think of something more to add to this.
- Debt is Slavery, Part 4: Retirement is not about age by MBH @ Mighty Bargain Hunter. MBH reviews a chapter in the book that says something to this effect:
Debt will kill your retirement.
- Are These Silly Mistakes Taking A Bite Out Of Your Wallet? by ISPF @ Grad Money Matters. Does this ring a bell “Not paying attention while filling gas and getting stuck with a car wash” ?
Fortunately I have never bought myself a car wash…although I have come within a couple of inches of pressing the “YES” button for the car wash.
- Retirement Income Strategy - New Thinking by Super Saver @ My Wealth Builder. A detailed description of how the author is planning for his post-retirement sources of income. There is some stuff in this that I don’t fully understand…so this is going in my read-again-and-again list.
- I Can’t Afford to Speed by Stephanie @ Poorer Than You. Hmm…I guess people would be better off reaching 5 minutes later for watching Borat than raking up hundreds of dollars on a speeding ticket. Speeding for the adrenaline rush? Try Six Flags. I did some detailed analysis on the speeding issue a while back…perhaps that will provide some additional discouragement in case this post doesn’t quite convince you against speeding.
- Dave Ramsey Resources and Links by Sam @ Getting Finances Done. Wow..there’s everything here you want to know about Dave Ramsey. One of my posts is included under the “Dave Ramsey Critics” section near the bottom, check it out.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi there. I just found your blog through pfblogs.com.
Kids don’t need to eat 1/2 pound burgers and massive amounts of cola to get obese. Just 1 soda a day can lead to an extra 10 pounds of weight gain per year. As you said, kids don’t get obese overnight, but the slow-steady process is what makes it easy to not notice (or ignore) that their child is overweight. Also, kids are not like adults when it comes to self-awareness. They aren’t bothered by being overweight until they are teenagers. By that time, it’s almost too late to avoid a lifetime of obesity. What parents do know that is when they bring their kids to McDonald’s, or to the ice cream store, feeding them high caloric-density foods makes the child happy, and therefor, makes the parent happy.
There’s also the hope that children will “grow-in” to their weight. A lot of parents are thinking, “I was a fat kid, but now I’m fine.” However, the type of foods that were around 20 years ago are different than what is available now.
Childhood obesity is a huge problem. 30% of kids are overweight or obese. I know you think that families need to take personal responsibility for this. I agree that they need to take steps to protect their children from health-risks. But think about this - the gene pool has not changed significantly in the last 20 years. Also, what people in general know about the importance of nutrition and exercise has probably increased in the last 20 years. So what has changed? More McDonald’s stores. More Starbuck’s stores. Packaged / preserved foods advertised as being “healthy”. Elimination of school gym classes with no-child left behind laws. 200+ cable/satellite channels Internet. Blockbuster Video. Bulk goods at Costco. PS3, NDS, Wii, Xbox 360. You tell me, does the average family have what it takes to battle these forces?
Great post Golbguru! Bringing it back to the topic of finances: There have been numerous studies done that show relationships between being health and being wealthy. Have you had a chance to read The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley. He explores some of the characteristics of people with huge net worth.
Stanley explains that there seems to be a huge difference in the mentalities of those that are balance sheet rich and those that are either “poor” or only income rich. One of the biggest difference is that the rich think education as well as being healthy is extremely important. Even more important than being rich, surprisingly.
-Wilks
Yes, parents DO need to be more aware… and yet I know that while parents want to do the right thing, in the United States the fat-and-sugar-filled pre-packaged foods are generally less expensive than healthy foods.
Poorer, and often less-educated, families cannot afford to make foods from scratch with healthy ingredients. This has been true for at least 40 years… we are seeing in my generation the result of the 1960’s drive to pre-package convenience, economies of scale and rapid shipping methods that made all sorts of foods available year-round. We also see, in many places, people continuing to eat as if they worked on farms (read Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder) when they sit at desks all day.
One of my family’s major expenses is food. Because we have food allergies, we really must buy fewer pre-made foodstuffs. There are so few coupons in magazines or newspapers that apply to the things we eat. As a result, we have less junk food, fewer additives in the things we do eat, and more pure (organic) fruit or vegetable snack foods. There are definitely days and times that I yearn for cheap, fast food that would free up a couple hundred dollars.
And another note that puts your comments into the realm of finances… overweight people have more health issues, from diabetes to heart disease and all sorts of other problems, including joint (knee, ankle) arthritis. [Note that not all people who are obese are that way because of eating and exercise habits; and not all obesity-related health issues are caused by obesity, there is just a correlation.] More medical care, more surgeries, more medicines… more money!
If people could just be content with “enough.” But that’s a topic for another day!
Realistically Obesity should never occur; why do we need to eat that much food? In my life I’ve been a bit overweight and had a bit of a gut but I knew it was my doing and I took responsibility to fix this. Since then I’ve lost 40lbs and I’m now in far better shape. If my children started putting on weight I would start adding activities to their lifestyle to compensate. If you’re going to become obese for dietary and lifestyle reasons then you should do it when you’re older not when you’re a young child and your parents can’t be bothered to do anything about it.
Golbguru,
Thanks for including my post. It’s new thinking on my part and I will be writing more as it gets fully developed.
Your post on obesity is one of several articles (including the WSJ) and discussions (young colleagues having heart attacks) that convinced me I need to improve my eating and exercise habits to make sure I see my grandkids. Ahh - my brain gets to deal with another change
BTW, is 10 base 4 or 31 a correct answer for your new spam protection
Great Post!
My family loves to eat. It also doesn’t help my mother loves to cook and entertain.
For me, it’s all about pro-active and sweating away the pounds on a regular basis. On some days, I simply want to pig out and play video games. It’s a never ending battle for me.
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