Whats up with kids these days?

[Spiral Architect]

Umm I really dont know what to say becides "got any popcorn"

This is shocking, The 400 pound 7 year old

The link title says it all.
To be 7 years old and not being able to walk... is just shocking.
Do you think this is a case of bad parenting? or just children these days with the wide variety of junk out there, just gorging themselves?

[Doc Rocco]

I think this is bad parenting. What parent would allow their child to eat enough food to reach this kind of weight? Okay, so at first it may have been just a little overeating, but once the kid became obese, would you not make him cut down on food, or see some sort of medical professional? As far as I'm concerned, that is child abuse. No child should be allowed to reach that sort of weight. What were the parents on, letting him eat himself into oblivion?

As a side note, some of the comments on that video were horrible. Just because the kid's weight is out of control is no reason to ridicule them. That's another serious problem with kids these days. No courtesy or respect. Just plain rude and obnoxious.

Oh, by the way, I am technically still a kid, but I do respect others. Just thought I'd share that. Hehe...

[Rasler]

I doubt its something as simple as overeating or poor lifestyle. I've seen an experiment in which the "controls-sensation-of-hunger" part of the brain in a hamster was mode-locked on, with eerily similar imagery to this video. The human body almost never does this; there are psychological, physical, and external prevention measures in place. The brain has "I've had enough" settings, there are biological functions to limit this kind of extreme result, and usually, a parent would have stepped in and prevented this by now. I suspect there to be some biological disorder at work here, which is only PART of the problem.

These days, it's less of a problem with the children and more of a problem with parenting. Parents simply don't discipline as well as they used to. Notice the reaction from her mother: "You could see her in the car, and yeah, she's getting a little big." Really, you're so incredibly insightful there, you criminally negligent parent. All it would've taken was "Wow, you're really very overweight. Let's get you to a doctor to see what we can do fix this and avoid this again in the future. If it's my fault, then I'll immediately stop doing whatever I'm doing wrong and do it right from now on."

On the topic of what's up with kids these days in general: I mostly blame the parents.

Parents deserve 90% of the blame for the actions of their children, until that child is an adult.

The most common problems I've observed are:

Parents don't do much disciplining any more. Behavior modification through any number of methods is fine, but physical discipline should be used sparingly, as it sometimes tends to create an endless spiral of "I hit you because my parents hit me." Also, go in and toss the room every now and again and search for illicit materials. The child will not want to secretly possess weapons, drugs, or unapproved entertainment.

If your child plays violent video games or watches violent movies, limit the exposure and most important of all, MAKE DAMN SURE the kid knows the difference between fantasy/entertainment and reality.

Parents aren't "hip". They often shrug off whatever the kiddies are in to, considering it a harmless waste of time. We know this is a false and dangerous assumption. Even worse, they often aren't educated about ratings or control systems. I have seen cases where parents didn't know that "Grand Theft Auto" was not a suitable game for children (Really?! I wanted to hit this woman. With my back-hand.). Parents also rarely use censoring, via V-chip, parental control software, etc.

Parents don't do nearly enough monitoring. All it takes is an occasional secret anonymous visit to your child's Myspace page, 10 minutes of observing whatever game the child's playing or the movie the child's watching to determine if it's acceptable, etc.

If your kid's a psycho, it's your fault for not noticing or preventing it. Stop blaming it on other stuff.


Now, note that I'm only speaking in generalities. Exceptions and extreme cases do occur.

[Silver]

Originally Posted by Spiral Architect

Do you think this is a case of bad parenting?

Pretty much. As has been mentioned if a kid is getting that gargantuan (even a couple years back at 5 she was huge according to that video), she really does need medical help. And the parents will need to help out there as she can't just walk to the hospital. (Sliding cross country would probably be quite unhygienic and the friction might cause harm).

or just children these days with the wide variety of junk out there, just gorging themselves?

That too. What's really amazing is that they still seem to be able to afford to keep eating with how much the prices have been jacked up. When I was that age, $2 got a big packet of chips and some soda, these days I'm lucky to get the chips alone for that price...

But yeah, kids eat too much, they get bigger, they seem to be able to eat more and so on. I've seen some little ones who can out eat me at buffets.
And that's just sad as I eat a ton at buffets...

Originally Posted by Rasler

Parents don't do nearly enough monitoring. All it takes is an occasional secret anonymous visit to your child's Myspace page, 10 minutes of observing whatever game the child's playing or the movie the child's watching to determine if it's acceptable, etc.

Well said. A good indication of things AND free entertainment, albeit possibly briefly. Hell, they might score some free games if the kid paid for them and they got taken away.

[Fishie]

**** this. This shit pisses me off. I fully blame the parents for even allowing their own child to gain such a massive amount of weight. And at 400 pounds!!!! That's about a bit more twice my weight and what's more ****ed is this is a little girl who's not even an adult going through obesity.

I do believe it's what her parents have provided her with that has caused her to reach this point. It angers me how she can't even walk or how she's at a high risk for diseases like diabeties.

And I agree with Rocco, I was looking at the comments at some of the people posted and that put me more on edge about this whole thing. I hope the little girl is able to walk properly and lose that weight. It's sad to see someone so young go through something like that.

[Atma-Noah]

Rack another one up for bad parenting. I was disgusted at the fact that instead of stepping up and helping the girl, they pulled out a video camera and recorded her so they could get the media to parade her about. At the very least though the media didn't tool on her too and is getting her help.

Kudos to Fishie and Doc Roc for bringing in the point that there isn't many kids these days being raised to respect others. It seems to me that the product of the mass majority of parenting has taught a lot a kids that self is the only one who matters these days. Which leads to a huge amount of rudeness shown in kids.

Like Rasler said it doesn't take much time to check stuff out, and when kids are young you can't expect common sense to guide them very well...look where it got her.

[Unknown Entity]

Lol, my nan remembers the day when if she did something bad at school, then the teachers could hit you. Kids ran around the street - GOOD kids - and stayed healthy because there was no television. Pocket money was only given out a few times a month, and they were lucky to get what they were given. Thing were a lot more strict back then, and I think thats half the problem with today.

When a child is overweight - especially to that weight! - parents should notice this, and take action, BEFORE it gets to late. Parents are to balme for this. If they aren't chucking money at them, they are spoiling them with... crap!

Crap/Fast food isn't the best stuff to be feeding your kids from a young age - its a treat to have once in a while, but stupid when you're ****ing living off the shite. Kids need vitamins, and GOOD food at ages as young as that! Crap does nothing for them - especially if they aren't getting exercise to burn it off.

Now, how do children get get fast food? Parents! BAD parents! Who constantly feed their kids JUNK! This has worked me up big time man...

[FF Ace Cid]

BAD PARENTING!!! It is the only explanation. How could the parents allow their child to gorge themselves that much. This is very, very wrong of the parents. How could you allow your child to become bigger than yourself? Outrageous! Disgusting! Pathetic parenting! Even as an uncle, I have better parenting skills than whoever raised this child. About anyone can be a parent than these parents. Their child can't even walk, that is awful. She obviously can't go to school. This is unacceptable. The child was obviously in charge.

As for children's bad dietary habits, that may be true, but not to this level. I don't see how a child could eat that much, or how a parent wouldn't prevent them from continuing to eat that much.

Pure wrong and senseless, and irresponsible, pathetic, I am disgusted.

[Yuki-onna]

Worst thing parents do nowadays: give the child what it wants so it'll stop whining. No one's raised perfectly, but I can say for my own upbringing, I'm glad I wasn't spoiled, because in extreme cases, this is what happens.

Parents are supposed to be there to teach a child what's right (at least, in a general sense - I'm not getting into the ultimate right and wrongs here...) and guide them into something of a human being. This is a disgusting example of not only negligent, but cruel parents. Now this child is ridiculed and made into a spotlight for something that isn't her fault. She may have eaten it all, but if she wasn't taught restraint, what the hell is she supposed to know? She's seven and having to deal with grown up problems. Her parents should be imprisoned and sterilized.

[Pete]

I say that we take them ALL out back and shoot them. Also take those muppets who are "touched" by the story and kill them too.

People should not be touched by this story, they should be mad. They should be mad at the parents for not only letting their kid become so goddamn fat, but for also continually loading up the trough and shoveling twinkies into her mouth. Worse yet, they videotape it and then wonder what they can do to help the poor kid. Gee, you ever think of buying vegetables or saying "NO, you can't have that third helping of dessert." The kid should be put on a flatbed and taken to child services and put in the care of someone who can competently show they can raise a child. I'd also take her to a few dietitians along the way for good measure.

Ugh, this shit pisses me off to no end.