(no subject)
Just a rant.
A young girl, perhaps six or seven years of age, stands next to the garbage can, gripping a partly crumpled McDonald's bag in a tight fist. A sullen look pulls her otherwise normal features into a distinctly disagreeable expression. One of the Starbucks baristas is mopping up a brown, slush off the tiles in front of her. Several expert sweeps later and he leaves. A bright, yellow caution cone marks the newly cleaned spot as if to say, "A frapuccino died unecessarily here."
Let me go back to the little girl, who was in all reality not very little. She was as wide as she was tall, and her orange frock did nothing to hide her early obesity. Her body was the portrait of countless frapuccinos that made it to their final destination in her digestive tract. Her mother, by comparison, was a lithe woman in her early thirties, sporting Armani gym wear and munching on celery.
The woman reminded me very much of many concerned mothers I'd seen in both Pediatric clinic and Pedatric Endocrinology clinic. They, themselves svelte for mothers of three or four, ranted and bemoaned the horrible disease their children had somehow contracted - the disease of being overweight. It's hormones, they'd wail; my mother's neighbor's daughter had the same thing! Poor girl had this hump on her back and started growing hair on her face!
First of all, your daughter does not have Cushing's. Second, I might have been more inclined to believe you, if I hadn't seen the McDonald's bag your daughter stashed in the trash can just before walking into the exam room.
Can't you give them something for it? Phen-Phen? How about another weight-loss drug? I heard about drugs X and Y and Z on television! I heard there was this tumor thing in the brain that could cause fatness! I heard this and that and the other thing! It's society! It's Santa Claus! It's the goshdarned Easter Bunny that's making my kid fat!
No, it's the fact that you're not watching your children, or worse, buying them frapuccinos with espresso brownies at Starbucks every single time they even look like they're going to whine. It's the fact that you let them sit inside at the computer or playstation all day long without ever seeing the light of day, much less move a fraction of an inch to reach the remote control. It's the fact that they're allowed to munch on Cheetos, Doritos, and every other unhealthy "-os" in between meals and obscenely frequent trips to Starbucks.
Isn't elementary school a little early to be starting with caffeine addictions?
The point is this: everyday of pedi clinic I heard physicians nearly begging the parents to pay more attention to their children. Did you know babies can fail to thrive just by lacking love and affection? They need your love. They need your attention. They need your caring, and they need your rules. Help us help you, and love your kids enough to say 'no more frapuccinos or Big Macs for you, young lady - I think five of each per week is quite enough.'
They'll thank you for it later when they don't have to have a gastric bypass when it could have been avoided.