Regulate THIS. Parenting fail.

I didn't know whether to put this turd of an article on childhood obesity and  junk food ads on my Thrifty Dieter's Blog or may parenting blog. As a matter of fact, I'm typing this right now on my dieting blog but am fixin' to cut n paste it over ...

Stand by ...

There. Shiny.

So, here goes:

"AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Junk food ads account for two-thirds of televised advertisements for food that are shown when children are likely to be watching, researchers into obesity said Friday, based on a study of 11 countries.

Germany and the United States led the way at 90 percent, with Britain and Australia the lowest at about 50 percent, the researchers said, urging governments to limit such marketing in order to combat obesity.

"Internationally, children are exposed to high volumes of unhealthy food and beverage advertising on television," Bridget Kelly, a nutrition researcher at the Cancer Council NSW in Australia, and colleagues told the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam.

Uh, huh.  Then thay show us the stats - just so we are aware of the problem - in case we've not stepped into a Wal Mart / Target/ K-Mart / whatever in the last decade:

''About 177 million children and teenagers under 18 years old worldwide are clinically overweight or obese. The figures include 22 million overweight children under five years old, according to the International Obesity Task Force."

Yep, yep, OK.  Knew that. V. concerned about it, myself.  Then we have:

""There is a lot of attention on unhealthy food marketing as an influence on childhood obesity and a lot of governments are reluctant to regulate," Kelly said in an interview. "So most countries in the study don't have regulations on food advertising."

The researchers, who looked at children in Australia, Asia, Eastern and Western Europe and North and South America, found that junk food ads mainly featuring fast food, confectionery and high-fat dairy foods increased during times young people were most likely to be watching
.
"Children see around 4,000 to 6,000 food advertisements on television a year and between 2,000 and 4,000 are for unhealthy foods," Kelly said. "So even if you are in countries that are advertising less to children, that is still a lot.""

And, finally:

"While establishing a direct link between advertising and obesity is difficult, it is clear marketing plays a big role in the kinds of food children prefer, the researchers said."

BIG FAT PARENTING FAIL, people!!

They're talking about CHILDREN!  Children who, for the most part, do NOT purchase their own food!

"kinds of food children prefer"?!  I'll bet every child on the planet would prefer to eat brownies, marshmallows, and a half pound of candy corn, drenched in syrup, and milkshakes to wash it down with.

You stupid idiots!  These kids all have - what I like to call - "PARENTS" (use the air quotes, go on,) whose damned JOB it is to make an intelligent best-for-my-kids decision about what to purchase and prepare for their children!

These assholes want the government to regulate parenting some more?!  Because a huge number of parents just can't be arsed to make smart food choices for their kids?  How dare you suggest that we are all some sort of helpless victims, here. Unable to stop our weak, weak willed selves from giving wee Ymmah ("pronounced "Emma") and Jaysonne every little damned thing they want!

Or because mommy and daddy are, themselves, grotesque, bulging, sweating, wheezing, sedentary carbohydrate addicts (y'all know I had to squeeze in a low-carb pimp) who'd rather get their GUTS sewn up and eat 1/2 cup sized meals (and vomit quite a bit) for the rest of their lives (oh, and end up gaining the weight back anyway!)???

Did I get that right?  Did I? Did I use enough exclaimation marks?

Seriously.

"Limiting this food marketing is an important preventative strategy for childhood obesity."

No, no, no, NO!  I don't need a damned government nanny.  I mom for a living, people. Like Dane Cook said in My Best Friend's Girl : "It's what I do."

(*pauses to wipe Dane Cook induced drool off of chin*)

I chose to be a mother. I wanted to be a mother. I am determined to be the best damned mother I can be. And that means being One Tough Mother. I'm not my kid's friend or buddy. I am his/her mother. I try to buy stuff they prefer, but fact is, there's just one rule at my table: Eat What I Fix, or Go Hungry.

No, wait, there's a second one: No Bitching.

I try to get the best, most healthy ingredients: fresh eggs, wholesome meats, real vegetables, real butter, cheese, whole milk, etc, etc, and I spend a lot of time shopping, planning, cooking and cleaning up afterwards.  Eat or don't eat, your choice, and keep quiet about it.  No one gets special meals, no one gets a PB and J if you just hate what I served. "My baby will only eat mac-n-cheese and chicken nuggets so that's all I serve!" has never been typed by me on a baby board.

If my babies (and I have five children with 5 v. different tastes) didn't like something, well, too bad. They got served that something 12 more times and had to eat at least one big bite every single damned time. After a while, when I determined that there were some things that certain kids just hated (oldest Boy, won't eat mashed potatoes, for instance), well, then I just leave that off his/her plate. Otherwise: supper as usual.

YOU are the mom. YOU make the food choices. BE the mom. Make GOOD choices.

See how simple that was?

Kids learn by example, folks. They learn by what you do and say.  Your sweet babies will be exposed to cigarettes, drugs, sex, crime, commercialism, idiot victim-minded liberals, stupid closeminded conservatives, money-lenders, and high fructose corn syrup in their young lives.  If YOU, mom and dad, actually pay attention and stand up and teach Bryttani and Kayde how to make good choices, well, you may actually produce some normal sized, normal lived, successful, and happy people.

Cuz, y'know, that HFCS will kill you.