Michelle Obama Can Shove Her Broccoli

Last year the school starting giving kids “healthy eating” talks, as part of the “Let’s Move” campaign. While I’m a firm believer in healthy eating, I do not think it’s the schools place to put our children on diets. I feel it is my responsibility to raise my children; the school is there to educate my children so they can be productive members of society. I know that sounds hypocritical, but as a parent, isn’t it my responsibility to feed, clothe and assure their safety and well being? Then why does the school feel the need to step in to my area of responsibilities?

My daughter started hearing the lectures in 1st grade. Now, there are ways to go about teaching children to be healthy and active, but reinforcing the word FAT is not one of them. In 1st grade, my daughter started refusing to wear certain clothes “because they make her look fat”. Mind you, my daughter is anything but fat!

Let’s skip ahead to 2nd grade, where my daughter is leaner than she was in 1st. A week or so ago, I attended a healthy eating lecture at the school. Again, it’s great they want the kids to be healthy, but the way they’re throwing this out to the kids, is in no way healthy for developing minds. Fat is a bad word. It’s bad to be fat. Those were the ideas I was left with when the lecture was over.

My daughter has told me the cucumbers she eats all the time are going to make her fat. About a week later, she told me she shouldn’t be drinking milk, because it is making her fat. She will show me her belly and comment on how fat it is. Notice the word fat being thrown around so freely? Just this week, she showed my Mom her belly and told her “look how fat it is”. My Mom showed her the ribs sticking out, both on her sides, as well as on her chest.

MY CHILD IS NOT FAT! PLEASE STOP WITH THE LECTURES THAT MAKE HER FEEL THIS WAY ABOUT HER BODY!

Not only are the lectures putting body image issues in her mind at an early age (that will come soon enough, thank you very much), it’s also teaching her that overweight people are bad. I don’t want her to think overweight people are bad people. There are people with health issues, beyond their control, that cause them to keep extra weight. I don’t want her to look at people, and judge them, based on their size.

My daughter doesn’t always eat healthy, but, for the most part, she does very well. On the flip side of that, and this seems to be an “after thought” in the lectures, she’s very active. She’s not ADHD active, but she has been known to climb a few walls. When I went to the lecture at the school, they briefly mentioned activity being part of a healthy lifestyle. I know diet and exercise are the key to a healthy lifestyle. If the schools are so head strong on making sure our kids aren’t FAT, then why did they take away P.E.? When I was in school, from 1st through 8th grade, we had P.E. every day, for an hour. AND!!! we also got 10 to 15 minutes of recess every single day of the week. We had the FAT laden food the cafeteria served, we weren’t obese. Now, the kids get P.E. once a week, and recess is not ever guaranteed. What happened there?

I want my kids to be healthy, but I don’t want my kids to be unhealthy. When my already thin 7 year old thinks she’s fat, we’re not heading in the right direction. At this rate, she will be anorexic by the time she’s 10. I think we need to rethink our goals and training for a “healthy lifestyle” for our future. In my opinion, the first step should be eliminating the word FAT from the lesson.