Bad parents

Warning: totally judgemental diatribe is about to follow that may offend some people.

Today I saw the fattest six year old I have ever seen in my life. This kid was obese. Her stomach hung down in the front like a pouch, she had fatty boobs, and her eyes were slits in her fat face. She was in the park, eating junk food with her not-quite-as-fat older brother who looked about seven or eight. The two of them sat on the bench, sharing big bags of sweets and soft drinks then throwing their rubbish down on the ground, despite there being rubbish bins nearby.

They seemed a bit young to be at the park alone so I started looking around for their parents, and finally spotted her big, fat, lazy pathetic excuse for a father, who was parked in a car by the park, because he couldn't actually be bothered getting out.

I felt bad for this girl because I admit it - even though I know better, deep down I'm prejudiced against fat kids, assuming them to be lazy and greedy. I know a lot of teachers are prejudiced too, and LOADS of other kids certainly are. She doesn't have much of a chance, really.

My daughter and her friend noticed it and whispered about her weight which was unusual as she normally never makes personal remarks about the appearance of other children. She never even cares what other kids look like. But I think she noticed, because, barring a major medical reason, it is just wrong for a kid that age to be that fat. I made sure to tell her it wasn't the girl's fault, it was her parent's faults for allowing it to happen.

Kids have loads of energy and can handle eating a lot of fatty food without gaining weight so I shudder to think what kind of food that kid has been eating, in order to get so huge. What that family was doing to that child, letting her eat that kind of junk and getting to that size is nothing short of child abuse in my opinion. If I were her neighbour or teacher I'd be wanting to notify CYF and would probably do it. 

Not that it would get me anywhere.

Yesterday I went to the mall. I normally avoid malls like the plague on Boxing Day (and every other day), but I had to get mobile broadband asap so I went. The people there reminded me of why I hate malls and those who inhabit them. All these sour, unkempt, overweight, greasy, bad-bleach-jobbed unhealthy people stuffing their faces with burgers, dragging their overweight rats-tailed kids around with them. 

I looked at those kids and saw: future tagger, future petrolhead, dropout. I bet a fair proportion of them had names like Destyny, Mercedes, Harley, or Diesel. You know, cre8tv names. Some creative names are ok (although some are pure trailer trash), but combine that with an overweight kid with a rats-tail and you get 'the kid the teacher is likely to dislike on sight'. 

Anyway, after being in the mall an hour I caught a glimpse of myself in a shop mirror and thought gosh, I look thin! And for the record, I'm not actually thin, I'm normal. My BMI is 21 which is about right, and I'm certainly not underweight. In fact I could afford to lose a kilo or three.

But it was scary how my normal became completely abnormal in that mall, surrounded by mall-goers. Apparently something close to 60% of New Zealand adults are obese or overweight, and although that sounds crazy to me, looking at the people around me yesterday, I can believe it. I'm not talking about a few extra kilos here, or a pleasant bit of roundness there. I'm talking obesity becoming commonplace. If it is that bad now, it is scary to think of what the current generation's stats are going to be when they grow up. 

There are way too many bad parents (yes I said that!) sitting in cars, stuffing their kids with junk, because they just can't be arsed. I feel really sorry for their kids. That is, until they grow up to be petrolheads and taggers and burger-lovin' bad parents themselves and then I'll hate them.