Mom outraged: 7-year-old pens weight loss plan

[The Straight Story]

How young is too young to start dieting? One mom is dealing with a 7-year-old who wants to be on a weight-loss plan.

Amy Cheney found a note in her daughter’s room containing misspelled scribbles about “diyet” foods and an exercise routine, which included doing “poosh-ups” and eating “appals” and “keewe froots.”

Cheney was shocked. And sad. And angry. She immediately wanted to assign blame. Was it her fault? The media’s? The school’s?

“Weight has never been an issue in our home,” Cheney wrote on Mamamia.com. “I have never stood before my husband and queried ‘does my arse look big in this?’ Ever,” she added.

After a quick chat with her daughter, Cheney realized her little one got the idea from another 7-year-old girl who was on a diet. Cheney also used it as a teachable moment, explaining to her daughter the importance of being healthy and not conforming to “society’s idealistic standards.”

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/03/08/7-year-old-diet-list-amy-cheney-mom-finds-daughters-weight-loss-notes

[talkingmime]

1. That's a little sick, but with all the PhotoShopped supermodels on magazines, what do girls think?

I've got three daughters who are all of healthy shape and weight, but they're still exposed to that crap. Fortunately we managed to raise them to have positive self-images, but it's a battle given the media projection of unrealistic proportions. Unless a doctor alerts a parent to a higher than normal BMI, there's no reason that a child should even have a concept of dieting. It's just sad.

[Nevernose]

2. On a related note

One of my students told me on Friday, just minutes after I first read about this girl, that when she was 11 she was nearly 400 pounds, but now, five years later, she was down to 240.

Another student had offered me a cupcake, so I made my usual joke about having diabetes -- not the "real one" but the type 2 "fat man" diabetes. Anyway, this girl came up to me afterwards because she wanted to tell me about her weight loss, but also about how virtually no one in her family or community had really understood about nutrition. If one wasn't hungry and maybe took their Flintstones chewables, then one had proper nourishment.

[ZOB]

3. My Reaction Was Completey Different

My first thought was that at 7 years old, a kid should be able to spell "apple". Pretty glaring indictment of our education system.

[JVS]

4. The kid is Australian, so that would be an indictment of their education system. USA USA USA!!!

[ZOB]

5. I Didn't Catch That

Is it bad to take solace in the fact that we're not the only country shortchanging our kids?