Sometimes I wish I'd had a nanny state growing up; maybe I would've had more than cereal for dinner those first couple of years.
But it seems this third-grader in Ohio had the opposite problem, because after tilting the bathroom scale near 220, the authorities stepped in and placed him in foster care.
Now before we look at the sides fighting in the playground over this let me just ask this: what if he weighed 20 pounds instead? Would that make a difference?
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I'm thinking it would. But as it stands now, critics on the right argue this is the nanny state at its worst while those on the left simply point at the growing waistband of childhood obesity numbers in this country.
But some of the facts have fallen between the couch cushions like so many Funyuns crumbs. For starters, let me reiterate. This kid weighs 218 pounds, more than triple the national average for his age. Not only that, but apparently, family services had been working with the family for just short of two years before finally pulling the trigger on the nuclear option of child removal.
Now I could spend the rest of today's rant pounding my bully pulpit (again) about the growing childhood obesity epidemic in this country, but that ground is well tread and we all know we've got a problem. But I will point out that fat kids – who almost always grow up to be fatter grown folks – weigh just as heavily on our health care system as those social pariahs known as smokers and drinkers.
(Although I can't help but think our elected officials remain woefully out of touch in light of the recent federal decision to classify pizza as a vegetable. With these nutritional guidelines, it's a not-so-small wonder our formative years are turning into fat ones.)
I guess what I'd like to see is a little bit more consistency and (gasp) common sense when it comes to not only decisions like these, but the rhetoric these cases inspire. Can someone tell me what's so radical about getting your kids his shots, keeping her away from the Happy Meals and sending him outside to play once in awhile?
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