The home is the first place people think of when trying to identify the causes of childhood obesity. Why Not? Their home is where children learn their values and habits. Many kids adopt their parents traits, which in turn leads to kids acquiring the same eating habits as their parents. A study done by Stanford University of Medicine found that one of the greatest risks of childhood obesity is having overweight parents (Greenblatt). According to Greenblatt, “Moreover, two-thirds of adults are either overweight or obese.” This shows that many children are taking on the eating habits of their obese parents, which are not healthy eating habits. In turn weight is increasing in many kids today.
Although having overweight parents increases a child’s chance of being overweight, it is not the only factor that plays into childhood obesity at home. Another reason parents are to blame for youth obesity is their control of indoor activities. Many people believe adults should manage the amount of time their children spend in front of the television and the computer because it is taking away from exercise related activities. As technology expands and becomes popular, video games and television shows begin to take up more hours in a child’s day (Crouse). This is eliminating the exercise related activities children use to burn calories. Proving that television time is a factor in weight gain Alan Greenblatt explains, "Indeed, a recent study found that only 8 percent of children who watch one hour or less of television a day are obese, while 18 percent who watch four or more hours are obese." Therefore, it should be up to the parents to supervise the amount of time a child spends in front of a television and instead encourage them to play outside or exercise.
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Yet another aspect of a child’s life that critics think parents should oversee is the type of food their child is consuming. In the words of Marlene Schwartz, “The treatment and prevention of childhood obesity is considered the responsibility of individual children and their parents.” When it comes to unhealthy foods children may not know the effects it can have on their body and overall health. Parents should be supplying children with nutritious foods at home. It is also important that parents educate their children so they can make informed decisions when eating outside of the home. When parents are giving their children money and sending them off to eat somewhere without regulating the food they are ordering, the weight and health problems fall back on the parents. Parents should be educating their children and controlling the foods they are eating, to help promote a healthy lifestyle.
