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England finally hits rock bottom

Virgil-TB2

Virgil-TB2

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 3, 2007
1,143
1
I know no one will likely read this when there is less than 12 hours to the iPhone show and this post has nothing to do with iPhones but this article rather shocked me.

Obese at 18 months

It's not just that this little girl is fat, it's the absolute idiocy of her mother that really galls. The girl mostly just eats chips (french fries), and her poor mother would like to feed her better food, but the girl "refuses." :eek: Stupid me, I always thought that the average mother can usually dictate the terms to the average 18 month old baby. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

This is the best part, the mother is quoted later on as saying that the baby does get some "healthy food" as she "ate a massive bowl of mashed potato the other day." Oh and the baby eats crisps (potato chips), chocolate and drinks Coca-Cola between meals. WTF? :confused:

As far as I'm concerned anyone who feeds Coca-Cola to an 18 month old baby should be arrested.

The lady goes on to say she isn't worried at all because there are "no big people" in the family, so there is of course no reason to expect her to grow up overweight. Now it's hard to tell how much this lady is overweight, but it's pretty clear that she is quite "big" herself.

There is just so much wrong with this scenario it's hard to know where to start! From denial of obvious facts, to ridiculous "magical thinking" (the baby likes chips because the mother does apparently), and from a complete misunderstanding of what "healthy food" is, to the idea that Coca-Cola is okay for a baby.

As an ex-pat British citizen this lady makes me deeply ashamed of my mother country and where it's got to today.

She's probably smoking ciggies and having a pint while she feeds the kid chips. Arghhh!!! :mad:
 
Im sorry but I fail to see what this has to do with the current state of England at all???

there are obese people in every country throughout western culture. This is truly sad but it's not exclusive to England
 
thechidz said:
Im sorry but I fail to see what this has to do with the current state of England at all???

there are obese people in every country throughout western culture. This is truly sad but it's not exclusive to England
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Well it's true that it happens elsewhere, but I thought the story a "typical English scenario." Other opinions may vary.
 
Virgil-TB2 said:
Well it's true that it happens elsewhere, but I thought the story a "typical English scenario." Other opinions may vary.
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Mom looks a little chunky herself. Maybe the [uneaten] apple isn't falling far from the tree as it were.

Sadly, there's a really simple easy solution if you don't want your toddler eating certain things - don't have any in the bloody house! It might mean a little more discipline at the grocery store, but there you are.

I have no sympathy for this woman. Plenty for the child though as she's not old enough to know any better.
 
Virgil-TB2 said:
Well it's true that it happens elsewhere, but I thought the story a "typical English scenario." Other opinions may vary.
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like it was said, it happens everywhere really, and the most in the US in terms of obesity. unless you're English, i don't see how you can qualify it as a "typical English scenario".

but in any event. some people shouldn't have kids, but they obviously do. and another example of the 'entitlement' mentality and 'whatever' mentality of people today.
 
could care less that the child is obese, but that the mother doesn't give a ****. She obviously doesn't practice discipline, and if she thinks a kid deemed medically "obese" is nothing, wait until the child gets older and develops worse habits.

Make an effort - learn to cook. Healthier foods that don't have to taste like sandpaper. For starters - replace those chips and coke with rice cakes and juice for crying out loud.

Too many parents use snack foods and TV as baby sitters, to make parenting easier.
 
I'm wondering if this is an instance where child services should be involved. Is failing to provide adequate nourishment and safety — and let's not forget, obesity is life-threatening — in this case enough to warrant removing the child from the mother's care?
 
Meh - just means there be more of the kid to burn when it eventually grows up, jets down here for a summer and passes out on Bondi Beach after the New Years Eve party.
 
Virgil-TB2 said:
I thought the story a "typical English scenario."
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Errr... no.

There are a lot of fag-smoking-while-pregant-give-the-toddler-a-happy-meal-to-shut-him-up bad mothers around - I see a lot of them through work.

However, the media don't write an article to say "Women raises child responsibly, doesn't abandon it whilst on holiday, doesn't feed it trash, doesn't blow smoke in its face, the child growing up normally and well adjusted"

There is a vile, disgusting minority of dreadful mothers out there, who are raising a small army that will spend most of it's formative years at her majesties pleasure probably.

But the majority of mothers are sensible, kind, hard working, responsible, and doing an awesome job.


Taking one article from THE DAILY MAIL ( which exists only to tell us all that the country is falling apart, and everything would be OK if only Diana were alive ) and then assuming the entire nation is hitting rock bottom is sensationalist and narrow minded...and a bit stupid.

Doug
 
If you believe everything in the Mail we are all obese drunk illegal immigrants.

Although you say social services should be involved, ha they are so useless. How many stories do you read about a poor kid being abused by parents/family members and them ignoring it. The stories in the news are a small portion of these occurrences sadly.
 
...
If you wanted to read about it
gurningqueenAP_450x292.jpg
 
djellison said:
Taking one article from THE DAILY MAIL ( which exists only to tell us all that the country is falling apart, and everything would be OK if only Diana were alive ) and then assuming the entire nation is hitting rock bottom is sensationalist and narrow minded...and a bit stupid.
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To be fair, the Daily Mail doesn't blame all the ills of the world on the death of Princess Diana – that's the job of the Daily Express.

Now, if you want a newspaper that blames the ills of the world (in particular poor, long suffering 'middle-England') on those shifty looking foreigners who are here to destroy our way of life, then we're talking about the Daily Mail.

My only surprise is that they aren't blaming this child's obesity on foreign-born nursery staff, who have been forcefeeding this angelic darling lard pies behind her loving parent's back. Their xenophobic, hate-stirring hacks have missed a trick there. :rolleyes:
 
Darwinian evolution at work right before your eyes gentlemen, it's a wonderful thing.

Now if we could just repeal the seat-belt laws and decriminalise all drugs, the nations IQ would begin improving almost overnight....;)
 
So 1 (non-royal) mother now represents all of England? Why can't it be any one of the mothers I know who don't feed their babies chips?
 
a chip eating tacky looking morsel of a human herself. this is what the world comes down to, benefits and mcdonalds fries!
 
I feel sorry for the child. The mother's negligence in providing healthy choices is pathetic, and a problem in all nations that have excessive access to junk food. I agree that it's the responsibility of parents to make sure their child eats properly. I'm not sure if the mother is ignorant of healthy eating habits, or just can't cope with a child's tantrums, (or both). Either way, she fails.

I do understand how the OP feels this is typical of England. I'm American, and think it's typical of USA. We are usually most aware of the trends in our own nations, so it's easy to overlook the fact that it's more widespread that we realize.
 
What is sad is this thread

As a sociologist who has researched the stigma of fatness for over 25 years, what I find truly pathetic is that people are buying into all this antiobesity hype. In the first place, if one follows the money, almost all the hysteria is created by BigDiet/Pharma (BARFMA). Almost all the studies are done by them, and they count things like the side effects of their own dangerous diet pills under obesity. How sad that the average sheeple has been taken in by a marketing campaign. In the second place, obesity can be caused by things like pollution, and mom's reducing diets even BEFORE she is pregnant. But the media will only run "faulty lifestyle" stories because they don't want people to know the truth! Even more tragic is that the general population has not caught on to the fact that the media is about propaganda NOT the truth on most issues.

As a fat child I am appalled and disgusted by those making such a big deal over chubby children. The psychological harm done to them by viewing their bodies as a national tragedy is far worse than being fat. I don't see how any thinking, reasonably intelligent adult could not see this. I know the only problems I ever had with my weight were caused by other peoples obsession over it. I turned into a moderately fat adult - 5'7", 220lbs who has no problem going up and down the stairs to my fourth floor walk up or walking 5 miles a day. Not only that, but I really don't look close to 50 and I have no doubt it is ampleness that keeps me youthful. There is not a single person I know who I would trade bodies with. I must also say that this Mac board is one of the most narrow minded I have ever encountered when it comes to insensitivity on weight issues. My screen is waving in and out as we speak and it really makes me think twice about my next computer brand purchase!!!
 
Pani said:
How sad that the average sheeple has been taken in by a marketing campaign.
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How sad is it that the average "sheeple" can do, what, 3 push ups? Four?

Pani said:
In the second place, obesity can be caused by things like pollution
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Pollution defies the laws of conservation of mass and energy. Check.

Pani said:
I must also say that this Mac board is one of the most narrow minded I have ever encountered when it comes to insensitivity on weight issues. My screen is waving in and out as we speak and it really makes me think twice about my next computer brand purchase!!!
Click to expand...

Damn, I never realized that that being physically fit made me so insensitive.

Which part of the article did you not read? The part where the mother was feeding her foods with virtually no nutritional value? Because it certainly sounds to me like it's the kids diet pills and big pharma that are to blame, and not, y'know, a steady diet of sugar.
 
Pani said:
...There is not a single person I know who I would trade bodies with...
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25 years research and you end up delusional. I've been about 20kg overweight for about 20 years, so I think I have a valid opinion. Being a porker is nothing to be proud of, it isn't pretty and it isn't healthy. It is something to be concerned about. If more people were concerned about it instead of ranting about pollution in computer forums maybe the population would be healthier. "It's me glands", "I'm big-boned"...:rolleyes:
 
MrSmith said:
25 years research and you end up delusional. I've been about 20kg overweight for about 20 years, so I think I have a valid opinion. Being a porker is nothing to be proud of, it isn't pretty and it isn't healthy. It is something to be concerned about. If more people were concerned about it instead of ranting about pollution in computer forums maybe the population would be healthier. "It's me glands", "I'm big-boned"...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You know, I'm not about to say that our body image is the picture of health, or that diet pills and diet books aren't marketing scams. But there's a line where personal responsibility comes into play. An overweight person isn't by definition unhealthy, nor is a thin or average person by definition healthy. There are tons of thin people who are just as unhealthy as overweight people, and there are certainly some overweight people who are very healthy inspite of their size.

But even trying to pawn off for a second this child's obesity and diet as the fault of a poor self-image or some kind of society-wide "anti-fatism" is nothing short of patently ridiculous. I'm pretty sure you can actually get a patent for taking ridiculous to that level.
 
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