Thin parents and fat kids

[SWPIGWANG]

How does this happen? Shouldn't they be making their kids exercise or eat sensibly or something, if they can do it themselves?

Kids are individuals.

<--- points to self. Both of my parents exercise more and eat more sensibly than I do. My dad at 2.5 times my age goes to triathlons and my mom is a health nut of "all natural, no fat, no favoring, no nothing" school. I myself is somewhat overweight and in probably no better health than my parents.

It is not like they didn't try to teach that, but it just happens I have no resistance to sweet foods and sedate lifestyle. It not like knowledge alone chances anything when will power is lacking.

[Count Dooku]

Some parents just don't care what their kids eat or do. It's easier for them to take them to Burger King and sit them in front of a TV than it is for them to prepare a healthy meal and take them to soccer pratice. This generation (of Americans especially) is extraordinarly lazy.

[Lusankya]

Occasionally it can be due to emotional issues on the part of the child.

My sister (poor girl - managed to get the worst qualities of both my parents) managed to get my paternal grandparents' build, so while my other sister and I were lucky enough to get the slender bone structure of my maternal grandparents, she was always bigger than us. She was also lazy, and nothing my parents did would get her to really work. My mum encouraged her play hockey, however her laziness meant that she put in the minimum amount of effort, and played in the backlines where she didn't have to run much. Generally she'd use her natural strength to play well, rather than skill or fitness. Because of this laziness, she was a bit overweight as a child, but it wasn't much, considering that quite a bit of her weight was just because of her bone structure.

Anyway, when she started going to high school, my father started becoming distant from all of us, and because of the peculiar nature of her personality, she was the one who took it the hardest. She began spending all her money on chocolate and other lollies, and while she did sport, she didn't exercise outside of that. It has always amazed us that she could sit so still for so long while watching television. She doesn't even fidget. Most people, even when they're sitting down to watch television, move a bit. She might as well be dead for all she moves. Now, throughout this, my mother was banning television (to no real effect, because she couldn't do this all the time), and went on a diet, completely eliminating unhealthy food from the house (or better yet, replacing it with still-unhealthy but horrible-tasting low-fat alternatives) and in general reforming her lifestyle. My sister somehow managed to gain weight when she wasn't receiving any money from my family, and the only food really available at home was about three grams of fat a serve.

My mother still wonders where she went wrong as a parent. This is when I weigh 58kg, and my other sister's plan for life includes getting a lacrosse scholarship in America, simply because she can.


ROAR!!!!! says GOJIRA!!!!!

[J]

True, there's always the luck of the draw. My parents were both around average weight until middle age when my dad put on a few extra pounds and got a bit of a belly.

Both my sister & myself are resonably slim, probably a bit on the heavy side for women but we're rather well-built & muscled from years of national level training and genetics.

Our baby brother wasn't quite so lucky. He ended up with more of an endomorph build, and despite being active in soccer, basketball and several other sports he still carries some extra pounds around the middle. He's not fat, but he's definitely what some people might call "large framed".

Still, I don't think genetics are the cause in most of these cases. Most cases I think come down to how the parents raise their children, just because the parents can do something doesn't mean that they can successfully transfer their habits & values to their kids.

[Lusankya]

Oh, I agree definitely. You can always tell when someone's big because they're just meant to be and when they're big because they live unhealthily.

And of course, my sister's 19 now, and once kids become teenagers, parents have less control over their eating habits. But obese four-year-olds? No way that's anybody's fault but the parents'.


ROAR!!!!! says GOJIRA!!!!!