Page 1 of Child Abuse

I know you guys like a little bit of controversy so how about this one.

Prompted by a discussion about the program recently about the half ton man I remembered a conversation where my wife was chastised for suggesting that parents should be arrested for having fat kids.

Here was her reasoning :

If you are responsible for the upbringing and well being of your child, you should not allow them to excessively eat unhealthy foods to point where their obescity becomes a health problem. If you do you are responsible for health problems throughout their life (including adult hood) and you are possibly shortening their lifespan as well - that is physically abuse of that child.

Being over weight can also lead to psychological problems, bullying at school and lack of self esteem - that is emotional abuse of the same child.

Surely there can be no excuse for that ? It was argued that the parents only do it because they love their children, but parents aren`t allowed to strike their children any more . . . not even if they do it to discipline them because their parent love them, so why should parents be allowed to destroy their childs life by over feeding them.

Any comments ?

I rember a case where a grown man sued his folks because he was fat.

But for the life of me, I can`t remember if it was real or in Ally McBeal. :/

I had the same discussion with a friend of mine who has an overweight (clinically obese) cousin. I`d argued that it was a form of child abuse, but his answer was: "She`s 11, old enough to think for herslf. If she doesn`t have the sense to lose weight, that`s her problem."
:/


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I`ve often thought that letting your children watch violent videos/dvds at too young an age could also be considered abuse.

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Quote:
I`ve often thought that letting your children watch violent videos/dvds at too young an age could also be considered abuse.
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I`m not sure about arresting them for overfeeding their kids, but maybe a bit of education/visit from the health visitor may do some good. I don`t think there are many people who maliciously overfeed their kids, so they don`t really warrant punishment.





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This item was edited on Thursday, 9th February 2006, 23:33

Quote:
I don`t think there are many people who maliciously overfeed their kids,

Not maliciously, no, it`s just that whenever the child opens it`s porcine mouth to ask for something, it gets it. Oh god Jamie Oliver was right...

However, my nephew, who`s 10, i think, is huge, but I can say with full authority that he eats very healthily and runs about like a dervish. He`s had tests and it appears to be glandular.

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I`d agree that it is something that parents ARE responsible for in a BIG way. But a lot of the time (in my experience) if the kids are fat the parents are fat too. I`ve not seen many skinny parents with fat kids, but you see healthy, normal weight children with fat parents.

Quote:
I`ve often thought that letting your children watch violent videos/dvds at too young an age could also be considered abuse.

Depends on the child I think. I wasn`t shielded from anything, they knew I`d get to watch it somehow. That`s especially true of today with the internet, where I know of kids who have not only downloaded porn, but also the very REAL videos of hostages being beheaded in Iraq. And this was at a SCHOOL!!!! (Can`t say which one cos if it got out it`d go to press!). And the kids were mixed between age 8 and 9.

Bottom line is, kids should be able to discover a lot of things for themselves. Over-protective parents make me laugh, it just forces children to either:

A. Lie about where they`re going and what they`re doing.

or

B. Be depressed and miserable and probably lose out on a lot of important experiences.

I know it`s a rough world, but it`s much safer to be upfront with children I think, tell them what they`re allowed to do and tell them EXACTLY why they`re not allowed to do some things.

As for feeding them healthy food (in moderation, no point in eating healthy if you eat a tonne of "healthy food" a day), it`s just common sense. But obviously not that "common".

Quote:
I`ve often thought that letting your children watch violent videos/dvds at too young an age could also be considered abuse

Film age ratings/certificates are there for a reason.

The thing is with kids is that their minds are absorbing information and the way they interpret this varies from child to child.

From experience, I know my 5 year old son could watch Jurassic Park, and not flinch at a thing.. BUT I could also guarantee that he`ll have difficulty sleeping for a week. :(

I know this is straying from the subject, but WWF/WWE or whatever it is really rubs me up the wrong way. When visiting a PlayZone indoor place for kids some time ago, there was a boy (about 5 or 6) practising wrestling moves on all the younger kids, ie pinning them to the floor, doing elbow drops, jumping on them, etc. I caught him just as he was about to start on one of mine. He kind of quietened down after I gave him the hairdryer treatment.

I`m not sure if a parent could or should be arrested or not for over feeding their kids, but surely parents would take their childs health more seriously if their responsibility for it was enforcable by law.

Would disinterested parents be so quick to palm their kids off with sweets and play stations to keep them quiet if they were likely to have repercussions themselves ?

If there was the threat of a child being taken away if the parents were destroying their health through neglect, would parents encourage their children to be more active and feed them better ? Lets face it if a child was starved how would we react ?

Obviously there would need to be a support mechanism put in place to educate those sailing close to the wind, and I`m pretty sure a parent of an obese 11 year old would take their kids health alot more seriously if Social Services were knocking on their door asking awkward questions.

My parents generation are living to a ripe old age, they are healthy, fit and active and a lot of this was due to an enforced healty diet during the war. I on the over hand, have bits hanging out all over and I certainly don`t expect to live as long as they do. However, thats my fault - as a child I (and most of my peers) was given a relatively healthy diet because thats what my parents had been brought up to do.

How long are the current crop of over weight kiddies going to last? They certainly won`t be breaking any longevity records. Who`s fault is it that they have got like this? and more importantly what should be done about it?