Summary: Is The Child Really To Blame

Is the Child Really to Blame?
Childhood obesity is a serious epidemic in America. Over half of the children in America are classified as obese or overweight. The worst part of childhood obesity is that people are blaming the child for their weight. A child is almost entirely dependent on others. Their lifestyle relies on that of their parents and school. The food they eat, the exercise they get, and even the beverages they drink are all a result of their guardians. Therefore, their diet and amount of exercise is a result of their parents and school.
The largest influence on a child’s weight by far are their parents, or guardians. Every meal and snack ate at home is controlled by the parents. Whatever decision they make at a grocery store directly

School lunches by far are some of the unhealthiest meals a child can consume. They are jam packed with fat and cholesterol, both of which are extremely unhealthy in large quantities (Barnard 2). Most children don’t receive another form of exercise outside of school. This makes school based activity and recess critical to a child’s health (Chin 208). Most articles claim that recess is increasing for children and many programs are being put in place for children (Chin 209). Unfortunately, I have to disagree with this. My brother attends a middle school and he has his physical education class once a week. Yes, he received a twenty minute recess everyday but during this he is usually goofing off with friends. In twenty minutes a child is not receiving the exercise they need to burn off the calories they’re ingesting. Especially after consuming school lunches. When a child is given extremely unhealthy meals five days a week and only receives twenty minutes of recess (usually doesn’t consist of exercise) a day they’re bound to gain weight and become obese. We’re setting them up for

Today the internet has taken control of our future generation. We physically cannot function without our electronic devices. In some ways these can work to our benefit like tracking how much we’re exercising or what foods we’re consuming. But in most cases these devices make us a very sedentary generation (Sahoo 190). Children get wrapped up in their “kill streak” on their video games or in their number of likes on an Instagram post. They end up living their lives online and not outside in the real world. This causes them to receive little to no physical activity. Most people would tell the child to just “put their device down and get outside and play.” This is much easier said than done. Not only are children obsessed with their devices but so are their parents. If the parents can’t control their own poor internet habits, how can people expect them to control their children’s? If a parent can’t limit their child’s device time then children are going to spend multiple hours a day on a device, usually sedentary. These devices are robbing children of the physical activity they need in order to maintain a healthy