It’s nothing new but it gets under my skin every time I see headlines like this: Kids’ weight increases when moms work more.
Really?
If it weren’t for the fact that this headline came from CNN.com, it probably wouldn’t have stayed open on my browser for 12+ days, waiting for me to do something with it. Well, here it is.
I work, and for those who have seen my kids, they don’t even come close to being obese. According to the study, because I work 50+ hours each week (between my day job and side projects), my children have a 5 to 7.5 percent increased risk of being obese.
Yep, there's me at work
Oh, wait. The research didn’t take into account that I’ve been educated on nutrition and informed on the consequences of not feeding my children a well-balanced diet on a regular basis. I enjoy cooking from scratch, and know how to prepare healthy, quick and easy meals around my busy schedule. I have tools, resources, and a stay-at-home dad to help make this all happen.
And it’s a priority for my entire family to be healthy.
This and other studies don’t look at important factors: education, values, information, resources, skills. And moms get guilt from so many places these days, including ourselves, that it’s pretty easy to blame us. Right?
Not so fast. I’m not convinced any “one” factor is to blame for the significant rise in childhood obesity. It’s not working moms, it’s not McDonald’s (they’ve been around since 1940), it’s not video games or computers. There are a lot of contributing factors and not one of them alone cause, or can solve the epidemic.
So, here’s an idea: let’s stop laying blame and give parents the information, products, resources, and tools that can help make impact. When it comes down to preventing and treating childhood obesity, it’s really about calories and movement – two areas that we, as parents, have a lot of influence over, at least for our younger children.
I’ll do my part to share information on nutrition, tips on stretching your grocery budget, recipes that are healthy, kid-friendly, quick and easy, along with fun tools, helpful resources, or great products that we find. I hope you’ll continue to share Feed Our Families with friends, let me know what’s helpful or what you want to see more of, and tell the rest of us how you’re making healthy meals happen at home.
What do you think?
8 Comments
Thank you so much for this!
I agree, parents who don’t have the tools to feed their family healthy meals won’t, weather they stay at home or work long hours.
Great post Gina. I think what it comes down to is what you said priorities. People/parents work so much that they skimp on taking care of themselves through food and exercise.
This is why your site and what you are doing is so important because you are showing working moms what can be done because you are doing.
Continue doing what you do and inspiring others.
Couldn’t agree more. I live under a woman who works 12 hours a week, her child sits in front of the TV all the time, and she feeds him “lunchables”, packaged noodles, and pringles for dinner.
I am always weary of those kinds of articles.
And grateful for sites like yours.
Thanks everyone. You know that I feel strongly about the need for education and resources for parents. We just need to keep working towards these goals.
I totally agree that we need to empower and inform parents, not keep laying an unrealistic guilt-trip on working families. I think it’s esp. important for working moms and dads who manage family dinner or meals at least a few nights a week to speak up and share their strategies. To show, “Yes it’s hard” but here’s what works for us. Family dinner is not impossible, and the effort is worth it.
Also, it’s a family priority, so if both partners can help out, whether one cooks weeknights, the other weekends, and/or there is sharing of shopping/cleaning duties,this makes family meals more do-able.
Great points Gina. I especially like “let’s stop laying blame and give parents the information, products, resources, and tools that can help make impact.” You are doing a wonderful job giving parents resources to make better decisions. Keep it up!
Grace & Alysa – Thanks to both of your for sharing your thoughts (& kind, supportive words) here. I truly believe that the more conversations that we have on these topics, the more impact we can have. I’m glad that you’re both out there with these messages too! Let’s show parents everywhere that healthy meals can happen!
I hate these blanket statements thrown out there by the media. There’s many types of working moms, and many different factors to the working mom situation. Can we truly compare the children who live in the city with less access to grocery stores to children who live in the suburb? This comment, actually, is too small for the depth this discussion requires!