[quote=bearishgurl]I routinely drive by a particular high school some mornings at the time all the kids are walking into school. Here, the students wear uniforms and nearly EVERY female, tall or short, appears to weigh in excess of 150 lbs and nearly EVERY male, tall or short, appears to weigh in excess of 185 lbs. A few students appear to weigh over 250 lbs! In my mind, there’s something terribly wrong with this picture.

And no, this is not my kid’s school, but the same issues also prevail in their school.

Pre-teen and teen obesity is clearly at an epidemic level. I totally blame the parents for lack of supervision, keeping lots of snack food around the house and giving their kids ample money to burn every day instead of packing a nutritious lunch.[/quote]

There is also a lack of physical activity. It’s especially prevalent for girls (though getting better) who don’t want to “sweat” because it isn’t perceived as pretty. I wonder if the school you drive by even has an athletic program. I hate the transition years where girls are kids and like to play and get dirty to somewhere around middle school where they start to care what their peers think and that stops them from being active. It’s a horrible development to see little kids who always want to race somewhere turn into the slow, pokey, “I’m too cool to run” types. Very sad.

I have my kids involved in sports early and often. Even if we just chase each other around the house and wrestle on a rainy day, it’s fun and it’s active. I always tell them when I went for a run or lifted weights to get stronger because I want them to think about that as part of their long term life goals.