Parents who fear to let their children go outside want the federal government to magically fix the problem the parents have created:
The majority of parents believe they play a major role in whether their children are overweight, but many also want the government to build more recreation centres.
[. . .]
The survey done by Ipsos Reid talked to 1,200 people, and most feel obesity is the leading health issue facing children today — more so than drugs, smoking and alcohol.
The survey found that 61 per cent of Canadians don’t think Ottawa is doing enough, and 70 per cent strongly support government initiatives that would educate children on healthy choices.
If you don’t let your children go outside unattended (hence the desire for “recreation centres”, where the little snowflakes will be supervised at all times), they won’t get as much exercise. Without exercise, on a typical modern diet, they’ll gain weight. Having gained weight, they’ll be even less likely to voluntarily exercise. Rinse and repeat for 18 years.
This story is the reason why I can’t listen to the news during the drive to work in the morning: the red curtain of blood that falls before my eyes really obscures my vision. And I think I broke the seal around the windshield with my screams of you-have-to-be-kidding-enough-already outrage.
Parents who fear to let their children go outside want the federal government to magically fix the problem the parents have created
The blame is not entirely with the parents. Part of the blame has to go to the media and social workers who have tirelessly worked over the past 30 to 40 years to convince us that there’s a pervert behind every tree, and someone just waiting to abduct every child the moment the kid steps outside unattended.
Part of this is due to the do-gooders at the municipal level, who pulled out the old steel playground structures because of unspecified dangers. And then who pulled out the pressure-treated lumber playground structures, because the kids might suck on the wood and ingest copper or arsenic or mercury or whatever it was.
Don’t forget the other wankers who insist on so much safety equipment for any activity — apparently you have to have knee and elbow pads, wrist braces, a mouthguard, an athletic supporter, and a helmet to ride a bike — that spontaneous activity is nearly impossible.
And do not get me started on the teachers and the education bureaucracy. The modern fetish for empathy and character and diversity seems to actively discourage any sort of actual effort and achievement. Everybody gets a damned sticker, just for showing up.
But of course, the solution here is a federal nanny. How much do you want to bet that this story, unlike most of the kids it claims to be talking about, has legs that will carry it? This will be in the news for the rest of this week. Next week, another poll will show that a “majority of Canadians” will support higher taxes for a federal fitness program.
I’d better get back to work so that I can earn the taxes needed to pay for this bullshit.
Comment by Lickmuffin — January 10, 2012 @ 10:59
Oh, and didn’t a recent study show that kids who were deprived of the opportunity for “risky” play activities become more likely to make much more dangerous choices later in life? That is, they didn’t get to learn about the risk/reward ratio when it was merely bumps and scrapes being risked, so didn’t develop the useful life skill of noticing when a (real) risk was far too great for the (potential) reward.
The almost literal death traps of my childhood playground would never be approved today, that’s for sure.
Comment by Nicholas — January 10, 2012 @ 11:11