The outrage over the Wii fit is awesome. I love how everyone is so concerned about the computer machine telling their pudgy little ones that they are overweight. We have heard for years that you have to be so careful about giving teens and tweens a poor body image. You should never mention that they might need to stop at that third bag of Doritos, if for no other reason than their little cheese crusted digits can’t even open it. Greasy equals slippery.
We have established that I am a hog, but in the early days, back in the 7th grade, I had no idea. My mommmmy always told me I was skinny even when my waist size exceeded my inseam length by double digits. I was a round mound of rebound and it took a devastating conversation with my brother to turn things around. It worked, through high school anyhow. He basically walked in on his lunch break from work and saw me sitting on the couch double fisting a bag of Cool Ranch for breakfast. Yes breakfast. It was noon, but I just gotten out of bed what with it being summer vacation and all. He called me the fattest little piece of crap he had ever seen and if I didn’t get my lazy ass off the couch, I would never have a date, let alone a girlfriend. Ok, it was brutal and I still cry myself to sleep some nights thinking about it, but it worked. I started running, started lifting, started watching my intake, and high school was a much better place for it.
The obesity rate in kids is epidemic. It makes the anorexia problem almost statistically irrelevant. Childhood Type 2 Diabetes is growing faster than Rosie’s…well, you know. Nintendo just used a BMI calculation for its game. The USA came up with this method to quickly rate your weight. So why are we the ones whining? Everyone knows that the calculation doesn’t work in all cases, but it is a place to start.
I don’t want everyone to have a bad self image, but people need to be realistic and help their kids eat right and get a little exercise. Boycotting the one and only game that might actually get your kid out of his seat and moving might not be the best plan of action. You may save their feelings, but they will likely die of heart disease….fair trade?
For those of you that prefer to drop your Wii in the trash and pursue a workout video for the kiddies, I added one. Low impact and the kids will feel great about themselves.
5 comments:
So it was or was not a good thing for your brother to tell you what a fat little pot bellied, greasy piggy eatin, bacon drippin, candy popping, soda slammin, pimply pubescent, four eyed, RMS smelling nerdbag?
So...in comparison to the kid in the video---honestly---how would you physically compare to him at that age?
I am that kid....it is my video.
Ok...while I will agree that after I issued you a 50 dollar check for a 2 dollar baseball card when we were kids, you immediatly spent it all on slush puppies, chips, and other assorted candies. It was shocking, and disturbing. However, there are a few big clues that this isnt you in the video. First, this kid has his hair cut. Second, he doesnt have coke bottles strapped to his head with duct tape holding the ear-pieces on. Third, his shirt doesnt say He-Man on it. Fourth, there is folded lundry on the leather couch, a chair-rail and art on the wall. Love ya buddy
I love how the kid has to keep picking out his Myra. (For the uninitiated, a Myra is a reverse Melvin and is typically something women suffering from camel toe have to do).
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