YOUR OPINION: Weighing blame for child obesityWeighing blame for child obesity

Dear Editor:

Let's put obesity in the proper perspective and quit placing all the blame on the fast-food establishments but certainly where it belongs. These eating places should not bear the brunt of this fast-growing (and out of control) problem but we should look to the real culprits - the fat person her/himself and the mothers.

When an overly plump girl sits down at a counter or table and wolfs down not one but two cheeseburgers with French fries or potato tots and one or maybe two colas (or whatever) she is looking at a weight gain of undisclosed portions. It is not so much what she eats but the number of portions she consumes at one sitting.

Approximately two or maybe three years ago I watched a program on television showing mothers with their quite young children who were addressing why they allowed their overweight child to consume as much as they did. Most of the kids on the stage resembled oversized butterballs.

When accosted with the question, the mothers all echoed each other with the alarming statement that if eating made her child happy why shouldn't he be allowed to eat what and how much he wanted. And the different mothers further remarked it was their business what their child ate; it certainly should not be the concern of others. Strange thinking on their part, as school lunches have reared up again with so-called food experts and guess who will be footing the extra expense - the taxpayers still again.

Many young girls and boys today lack self-control and appear just plain lazy. There are few who have glandular problems but I would say they certainly lack common sense.

I have seen mothers time and again hand out money at the mall or elsewhere to their children to get something to eat. And you know what they end up eating instead of a supposedly nourishing lunch later at home.

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