Kara Adkins
Staff Writer

With every generation, come new struggles and hurdles to overcome. It seems that for the upcoming generations that struggle has been childhood obesity.

In the past 30 years, childhood obesity has almost tripled and many are taking the wrong approach in order to solve this problem.

I believe if parents want their children to be more active, then they should become more active. No child is going to listen to their parent rant about how they waste their time playing video games when their parent wastes their time sitting on the coach watching football instead of making time for them.It’s a parent’s job to play with their child outside, eat dinner with them, and model what healthy eating looks like so someday their child will follow in their footsteps.  

According to Pottstown Area Health & Wellness Foundation’s Dr. Laurie Betts, “parents help build and shape lifelong eating patterns and children are likely to model the food and meal rituals of their families”. Childhood is the one time in somebody’s life where there should be no worries.  It would be wrong to take that away from them.

The way to go about preventing childhood obesity is attacking it at the source. There is no need to pressure children into losing weight and lowering their self esteem. Instead, it is a parents duty to create healthy lifestyles that their children can reflect as well.

There is Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and no worries. That is what makes childhood so amazing.