Childhood Obesity

I think part of the problem with children eating on the hoof these days is the over busy lifestyle. Two parents often out at work and no one to feed the children when they all ( parents included) get home. They are tired. Or again it is single parenting and the parent is exhausted. ( I am leaving out those "problem" families where fast food is a lifestyle that fits around gaming and boozing and getting a fix. There are those too where I live).

I had a mother at home and a father at work. Mum had meals on the table. I work part time and despite everything still find sometimes I cannot manage to have dinner on the table. My husband is now retired, so that helps. My mother helps on occasions too.

In the past children were in school from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. Now they are home at just turned 3:00 pm near me. They start at 8:30 am. Even they are tired! Have you ever noticed how being tired sometimes makes you reach for the quick snack and sugary drink?

Parents getting them out often have to drop them off on their own way to work and so the thing goes on and on in a vicious circle.

maybe everyone needs a lifestyle change.

But I still do not think obesity is as big a problem as is often made out. It is certain groups and we all have to pay the price of the food police for it.

I see from a newspaper article today that being underweight and not eating properly is a far bigger problem among the elderly than obesity in the general population. Apparently the over 60's became used to dieting and don't eat enough fat and calories which we need as we age.

Now they are home at just turned 3:00 pm near me

A lot of children and young people have very long days. An hour in a club before school and finishing at 6. Some youngsters are on public or local authority transport for hours.

Not a healthy life at all.

i do not buy into this 'parents too busy and harrassed to cook' story. Both my mother and my MiL worked, yet home cooked meals were served.

I worked and commuted and we had home cooked meals. A lot of the time I was effectively a single parent because DH was away for indeterminate periods of time offshore or in inaccessible countries without any communication. We had home cooked meals, mainly, because I wanted to eat them.

It is not a question of time, but organisation. It takes ten minutes to throw frozen ingredients into a casserole before you go to work, placing it in a slow cooker or delayed start oven so that you return home to a ready-cooked meal. Cook double quantities and you have one meal to eat immediately and another in the freezer for one of those really dificult or exhausting days. Do this regularly and you end up eating home cooked ready-meals three times a week.

My DGC are being brought up on home cooking, not ready meals, which are eaten only occasionally. Whoever is home first cooks the meal. 12 year old DGD, is now such a competent cook that she has the run of the kitchen and will sometimes cook the family evening meal.

I can only speak for myself here but I have never got on well with a slow cooker. I don't like them and stews otherwise known by the fancy word casserole these days have never been a staple in my family diet.

We do not eat ready meals or processed ones though. I agree in part with what you say. However, much of the fast food ready meal mentality is also tied up with schools not teaching old fashioned cookery anymore.

I can put a meal on the table in 20 mins - cooked in an oven from scratch but if I come home at 7:00 pm it is far too late to start cooking. I have some sympathy with those whose lives mean they are at work/school long hours and late hours and the temptation to get a pizza from Pizza Hut on the way home instead. We never have pizza in my house.

I agree with the OP, and have similar memories. I hate being cooped up on the train with other people eating vile takeaways all around me. If people must eat on the train they should have a designated area, like smokers, and stay there until they've finished. The reason it happens is because there is money in it for the train company. Commerce is at the root of most of our problems. We can't open our eyes without seeing "Buy this, buy that" all around us, with most of it elaborately packaged in single-use plastic.

How can children be expected how to cook if they never see it done at home? Five-year-old GD made an omelette on Saturday, right up to the hot pan bit. She's getting good at it - no broken shell in that one.

Yes, M0nica, it is not a question of time, but organisation. Eating together as a family is a vital bit of exposure to each other, a time when concerns can be aired and achievements celebrated.

Agree totally with Monica. I was a working mum with not only kids but animals as well. I made home cooked meals ahead of time. It isn’t just this generation that are busy! Of course I didn’t get much tv time, no internet or Netflix lol.

I can accept if people say they just can’t be bothered but to bleat on about being too busy these days doesn’t wash (and yes I had a blooming twin tub and no drier either) Must have been a lot of super women in my day

Absolutely pointless to admonish or remember the good old days.

Life has changed .

I have just observed a little in a shop. A lovely bauble featuring characters from childrens TV is displayed at the height of a small child. Small child picks it up and says " I want it" over and over again. The dad said no and then distracted the child.

That, repeated over and over again wears down even the most hardy of parents.
All the junk food and adverts are designed to wear parents down.

little scene

It is a question of what children expect. If they know whining will work they do it.

I never once in their childhood bought my children sweets at the supermarket till. So they never asked for them, because they knew the answer would be 'no' - and that I would stick to it. The same with DS and wife and a number of friends. Children will only keep asking if they know their parents will give in.

Absolutely agree Monica, but they wear you down and not all parents have the inner strength and rescources to deal with it.

You only need to hold out a couple of times for children to get the message and it makes life so much easier when they aren't constantly asking, asking, asking.

Well I think this retiring health czar is on to something. Remember what was said when the idea of banning cigarettes on public transport and in pubs?
Everyone cried impossible ! It will never work, specially not in Scotland, but it did. Now even the most hardened smokers say they are trying to stop.
I get buses a lot and although food and drinks are already banned here in Scotland it still happens.

I hope it doesn't include the biscuit and coffee we get served on megabus.

The kids who TAKE public transport at least walk to/from bus stops and trains. They're not the ones getting driven everywhere.

Im sorry but working has changed! Very few jobs were shift work and no very few jobs arent!

Both of my parents worked office hours. Both of their job titles today would require working evenings and weekends!

Yes they worked hard BUT working life was more family life compatable back then. Very few places open on a Sunday etc so you always had sundays to prep for the week etc

Most working parents left for work the same time kids left for school meaning that there was time in the morning to eat breakfast together and sort lunches etc.

What jobs start at 9 now? Very few. If youre not in an office by 7 you are considered late! A "late" start is 8!

That was not the norm in the past. 9am was a common start time. Even the working parents did the school run on their way to work. Now kids with 2 working parents go to breakfast club!

There are also hundreds of children "hidden homeless" in temporary accomodation "bnbs" that will evict them if they store food in their rooms! And if they get evicted for rule breaking they are classed as "intentionally homeless" and get put on the bottom of the housing list.

So the parents stopping by greggs with their kids on the way to school may be doing the very best they can!

If people no longer have to see all the kids who have to buy and eat their breakfasts on the way to school.. that wont suddenly give those kids the facilities or support to have a "normal" breakfast!

But hey ho, out of sight out of mind eh

More excuses though notanan. Most people only do 5 days a week even if they work weekends now. Things have only changed in that there are more ‘lazier’ options. More take aways and ready meals. Fine it’s their choice but please don’t say it is because you work harder or longer than my generation

Then theres all the child carers who do a days work before they even get to school! Banning them from eating on the go wont miraculously relieve them of carers duties and provide their families with support to shop and cook so its not all left to the child carers...

... but at least now you wont see them eating as the rush from caring to school

Who are these people where there are 2 loving, working parents doing a 5 day week? Have you heard of shift work, zero hours contracts, single parents and so on?

There are more calorie dense food readily and quickly available now. Some people can't get to shops that sell decent food. Life has changed drastically, it's pointless to blame and look back.

Im probably closer to your generation Tedber than the generation you assume me to be just because I sympathise with young people!

I never said that people didnt work hard in the past, but working patterns HAVE changed in every field I know well

And I'm sorry but absolute b*llocks to the idea that previous generations universally juggled it well. Children went to school hungry then as they do now. For those children, its convenience food or no food. No we were not all sat around the family tables eating a hearty breakfast together. If you were, you were lucky!

I knew kids who got fed via their friends parents because they werent being fed at home! Kids that stole food because their parents were ill at home and nobody was shopping.

Boo hoo you can see them now! Banning them from eating where you can see them wont mean they eat better!

The % of lazy parents hasnt increased. They always existed.

However the % of people doing un family friendly hours HAS increased!

It's a double edged sword because a fast food breakfast is better than no breakfast.
But the people who are serving the food that is now available in the mornings are away from their families so....

Plenty of parents (single or otherwise) work unsociable hours yet get themselves organised sufficiently to make sure their children are properly fed and manage family meals whenever they can.

Frequently those complaining most about their inability to find time to do anything are those with the most time. Do you remember the fuss a couple of years back with parents taking children to school, while they (the parents) were still dressed in pyjamas. Interviewed the parents claimed they did not have time to dress before the children went to school. As far as I could see none of them worked. I am willing to bet that all the working parents at that school, were not only dressed when they took their children to school, but had showered, put their make-up on and combed their hair as they went straight to work from the school gates.

The problem now is that we are all so compassionate that we immediately feel sorry for and justify negligent behaviour in a way, that does not help those that are truly facing great difficulty but enables those who can't be bothered, but would with very little pressure make more effort, to give them proper food at appropriate times.