WE DON'T HAVE A CHILDHOOD OBESITY EPIDEMIC . . .

because children want to be overweight. I believe that we have a childhood obesity epidemic because the adults in their lives are too full of excuses to do anything about it.

Let's face it, none of us launched into parenthood with the aspiration to become the "Crusher of All Dreams." The fact that 20-30 times a day we have to tell our children what they CANNOT do gets to be quite tiring. After awhile, you start giving in a little to make peace and/or to get back to work and the very important adult things that we do.

One of the places that a lot of us give in, is where food is concerned. After all, we all HAVE to feed our kids. Several times a day in fact. We all must eat! We are busy and pinching pennies and just don't seem to have time to think about something we have to do so frequently. So we give in and justify it for numerous reasons...See if any of these excuses sound familiar?

• Healthy food is too expensive.

• I just don't have time to prepare healthy foods. Eating out is so much simpler.

• They don't like vegetables and I just can't argue about one other thing today - I've picked all my battles!

• I don't want them to call me out as a hypocrite . . . "I can eat whatever I want because I'm grown but you have to eat healthy because you are still growing" Hmmm...Eat as I say, not as I do!

• My kids should be learning about nutrition at school - I pay lots of money in taxes for goodness sake! And I'm sure they will use that knowledge to make good choices once they grow up.

AND the great reason that our kids are less active these days...drumroll please,

• They can't go play outside right now, the mosquitoes are too bad and there might be a pervert lurking around the corner.

Which one is your favorite excuse? I know about three that I'll cop to on any given day. I think it might be time to grow up a little.

How are we, as the adults, going to help fix the very real obesity epidemic if we don't accept some responsibility? After all, IT'S NOT PRIMARILY OUR CHILDREN'S FAULT THAT THEY ARE OVERWEIGHT OR THE GOVERNMENT'S PROBLEM TO SOLVE. Parent-UP peeps!

Sincerely,

Leslie Smith Grant
President & Mother Hen
Chickin Feed, LLC

Un-busy a little bit.
Go play WITH your kids.
Feed them less / better...