Washington – There is a theory that women working 9 to 5 and because of that, according to one theory put forward by some nutritionists, children began to gain weight.
“We saw that start to happen. We could track childhood obesity. There’s a direct correlation,” said Terry Mason, Chicago’s public health commissioner.
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So did working women lead to heavier children? Sixteen percent of children six years and older are overweight. That’s triple the number from 1980.
Lew Fuller of an organization called Obesity Society claims because there’s no longer a traditional approach of a women being at home preparing meals, taking care of their children, getting them to exercise, there’s a logical tendency for anyone, including children, to gain weight. And also because families eat out an average of four times a week, a big jump from 30 years ago.
Working mothers are apt to find themselves taking their children to fast food restaurants more than they normally would because they naturally have little time to prepare meals, or just tired. [AP]
When do men have no responsibility?
I would add the manipulation of our food supply including genetic engineering of wheat, corn, certainly our fruits and vegetables among other foods and their impact is hardly discussed in the public domain. Hormone additions to poultry to bring about faster maturity, in cattle including for increased milk output. Allergies people have to corn derived sweetners (corn syrup among others) present in hosts of foods are guaranteed to make people fat. Large consumption of “diet” sodas to which is added, against, corn syrup and a host of chemically engineered sweetners whose impact on the body contributes to both obesity, hyperactivity in children, and probably as accumulable effect – to diabetes.
How about high-tech world and toys that did not exist 50, 40, 30, 20 years ago that keep children indoors rather than playing, inventing games and thus exercising outdoors in the air and sunshine.
Lifestyle changes in recent years must be taken into consideration in any analysis of obesity in children. Whole communities in which mothers once stayed home and watched over the neighborhood children playing in backyards, on sidewalks and even in streets where far fewer cars posed danger as in this our day – was in many respects a good thing for children. However, demographic shifts, impersonal high rise buildings, social changes brought about by huge populations influx and growth from divergent countries and cultures have altered the landscapes of many communities – certainly in the larger cities of America.
Definition of “neighborhood” as had been defined prior to the 1970s is as a rule gone forever. Many factors are responsible. Can’t just blame Mom! Reconfiguration and multiplicity of relationship models emanating for example from high divorce rates – must be factored. Men abandoning families surely are equality responsible if not more! With husbands gone – women are are all to often left to support themselves and their families.
~Sonia
Never mind that I am a stay at home mom; I’d like to see women who shop at the grocery store make proper choices, and not fill their carts with non nutritive foods, white flour products, processed foods, frozen fast foods, etc. If it’s not in the house you don’t eat it when you and your kids get home!
Your personel circumstances don’t a scientific study make. It proves no point. It is well known to society all the ills that forcing woman to work outside the home has wrecked upon the family structure.
There I agree with you, but in my case as you say may not be scientific but I do make it my business to be home for my children when they come home. But some moms can’t their husbands don’t give them that choice. I think that we need to rethink our priorities in life and change some stuff.
Sometimes unfortunately circumstances dictate that a mother has no choice but to work (for whatever of various possible reasons.) But in the cases where a mother doesn’t have to work, but merely elects to, is where we often go wrong.
But as social scientists are now well acquainted, the loss of a mother at home to welcome her children when they arrive from school, is an ill society is long suffering from.
Your personel circumstances don’t a scientific study make. It proves no point. It is well known to society all the ills that forcing woman to work outside the home has wrecked upon the family structure.
Bogus, narishkeiten. Children are obese because we have too much garbarge in this world that they can nash on. Also it is nature and genetics. I am a working mom and my two youngest kids are too skinny. I have to fight with them to eat more. So; that just disproves this theory, while my daughter-in-law is a stay at home mom and her daughter the same age as mine is obese. again, it is all baloney.
But if the working mom IS obese, then maybe it is better that she NOT be in charge of the feeding arrangements for the children.
Fat people are incapable of judging and distinguishing food portions and measurements, just as color-blind people are incapable of judging and distinguishing colors. If fatso mom is the one in charge of the food pantry, then the kids are going to get a good ration of transfatty acids and sugar and all of these other things that make fat people fat.
My theory: The Chicago study used mom’s employment status as their variable. But there is another variable that differs from 30 years ago: The t-l-v-s–n (we’re not allowed to use dirty words on a family blog such as this, but you get my drift). When I was growing up 30+ years ago, we went outside and played (and got dirty in the process), no matter how inclement the weather. Today, if its just a little too hot, or a little too cold, or a little too humid, the kids stay in the house and sit on their toochases and watch the lobotomy box for 5 or 6 or 7 hours, and get no exercise in the process. This, I think, is the cause of the fatness.
Maintaining one’s proper weight requires not only restriction of the intake, but also exercise to burn off the excess calories, and keep the cardivascular system operational.
Which is why I detest the office “convenience” known as the electric pencil sharpener. Everyone is too lazy to turn even turn the crank on the pencil sharpener anymore, let alone get their proper exercise. And, to boot, they waste electricity and/or pollute the environment with the disposable batteries in the process.
Stop blaming the working mom.
Yes.