“That’s Disgusting!” Said The Boy

norman-rockwell-thanksgiving-thanksgiving-2927689-375-479A few weeks ago a young man came over to go to the lake with us and spend the night. He’s a nice kid, has good manners and was fun. But Alex and I were both horrified, yes, that’s the word I’m going with, when dinner time rolled around.

The menu was pretty simple. Roasted chicken, green beans with bacon and baked sweet potato fries with ketchup. Sandor was excited but our 14 year old guest, who’s a big ol football player, looked concerned. He sheepishly said, “I don’t really eat that kind of stuff.”

“You don’t eat chicken?”

“No ma’am, well, only fried chicken, like chicken strips.”

“Will you try one bite?”

Reluctantly, he nodded his head yes. I cut off a piece of white mean with some crispy skin.He stuck it in his mouth and swallowed but was shaking his head no the entire time. The texture of actual chicken was so foreign and strange he had a hard time swallowing it.

“I’m really sorry,” he said. “I brought some food from my house, though.”

Let me go on record, my husband Alex, makes awesome roasted chicken. I could tell he was about to get pretty angry, so I rubbed his back, until the boy disappeared into Sandor’s bed room. “It’s not his fault and he’s obviously really embarrassed.  If you want to be mad at somebody be mad at his folks. This is their doing.”

Sandor came out, sensing there was “an issue”.

“When you go to Hunter’s house, what do you eat?”

“Junk mostly I guess. Cereal, pizza, fast food, soda.”

“So nobody makes any real food?”

“No ma’am.  Hunter’s really embarrassed.  He brought a pizza and some bagel bites with him though.”

I told Sandor to have him come out and eat with us.  We were all gonna watch a movie and eat dinner. I offered to put Hunter’s food on a plate but I promise, this is true. He sat at the far end of the couch, eating his pizza out of his back pack. And he looked like a beaten dog. I felt so sorry for the kid.

Parents, make your children eat real food! Don’t put them in this situation! Don’t wait till they are seven or eight years old or you will have an epic battle on your hands. Make them eat normal, healthy food when they are babies. Good Lord, I know you love your child but don’t let them grow up on a diet of processed junk food.

What would happen if you put pancake syrup in your gas tank all the time instead of gas. Well that’s what feeding your child junk food all the time is like. Sure everyone eats a Happy Meal, Nacho Dorito Tacos and stuffed crust pizza some times. Don’t cheer for your kid when they eat an entire bag of chips.  Being overweight in school can be really hard. Kids are mean.. Just stop it, ok?

Your kids will learn to eat and like what you teach them to eat and like. You have all the power. Use it responsibly, Spider-Man.

 

Help That Fat Kid Out!

Sandor was talking about his third grade PE. He always comes in third place when they run and that’s ok. But he told me Scotty  always lost,”even to the girls’ and then gets mad. Scotty is probably 75 pounds overweight so this news was not surprising. Then Sandor said, “Scotty hates PE so he doesn’t even try, really”.

Well, I thought, I’d hate going to a class that made me do something I knew I was going to lose every single time. And then my friends were going to laugh at me because I lost. Damn, I’d do anything to avoid that class. I’d pretend I had a stomach ache, I’d wear the wrong shoes, I’d even get in trouble so I could go to the principals office.

But here’s the deal. If Scotty were failing math or English, the school would make sure he had help, plenty of tutors and such, to keep him from falling behind and getting an F.

Why don’t they do that for the kid who should be failing PE? (Of course Scotty will pass PE even though he shouldn’t)  His obesity will hold him back, keep him down, and there’s no doubt he’ll have monumental health problems in the very near future. I think being morbidly obese is just as bad as being illiterate. So why don’t they get Scotty a special fitness coach who helps in work out in a fun way, no winners or losers, just fun. He’s a smart kid, teach him about good food, maybe he’ll take the message home to his huge mom. But our schools won’t address the issue. So Scotty has to keep running in races he’ll never win and every time he’ll hate athletics just a little bit more.

When I suggested mandatory school exercise (fun exercise) to my Republican friend he said,”are the school supposed to be the parents now?”
“Maybe, if that’s what it takes.”
He laughed, “You know who has a great school exercise program? Communist China.”

Damn, he was right. How many times have I seen those pictures of rows and rows of Asian kids doing jumping jacks?

Still,I’m standing by my original idea. If a fat kid is failing PE, we need to find a way to help him. Not doing anything is going to kill him.