I agree that that’s how things should be ideally. Unfortunately the fact is that there are many parents who don’t, this type of case possibly being just the most extreme sort of example.
For parents from deprived backgrounds who don’t have parenting skills but are capable of learning, I think the internet is only going to be a small part of the process. They will also often need individual counselling, coaching and ongoing support.
And, I think we both agree that that was probably given in this situation, but that there hasn’t been improvement. I’m certainly no fan of yanking someone’s kids away on flimsy pretense with no plan for correction - for one thing foster care is horrible and expensive. But if a plan for correction fails there has to be some point in time where we step in to benefit the kids - and with chronic obesity in the family, it may be too late for this kid if the social workers don’t learn from their previous failure with the siblings.
(I WAS being difficult and obtuse today and don’t know why, someone must’ve pissed in my cornflakes this morning).
This sounds really interesting. I wish I’d seen it. Do you remember how long ago the episode was?
Who says the kids are eating for comfort?
I’ve always wanted to invest in my own fat loss program…you ready for it?
EAT ALL YOU WANT WHEN YOU WANT!!
You need to go to the gym and burn 3/4 of the calories you consume
It was a series last year, Jamie’s Ministry of Food.
Yeah, according to this article, Dundee Social Services have been working with the family for over 10 years now, and apparently spent at least £114,000 on them. It seems the plan had been to move them into a supported residential block where they could have close supervision, but for some reason the social workers have changed their minds and taken not just the newborn, but the other children into care too.
So this seems to be a family that’s received a good deal of help already, and that Social Services presumably know well. I can only speculate about what might have prompted their (apparently) sudden decision to change their plans and take the kids into care, but possibly they had some reason to fear a change in the situation that would put them at risk.
Then again, it seems the baby’s to be returned, so perhaps they were taking a “better safe than sorry” approach.
Whatever the truth is – and, of course, Social Services can’t give us their side of the story – I’m going to hazard a guess that with six kids, one of them developmentally challenged, obesity isn’t the worst of this families issues.
I come from a long line of overweight people, but myself and my siblings are not overweight in part because our parents always encouraged us to stay active. I think whatever you can do to encourage her to move (and regularly) is good. For my brother it was baseball, basketball, football, etc. My sister and I started with dance classes and gymnastics. My sister got sick of that stuff quick and go into basketball and volleyball. I stuck with gymnastics, dance classes and then added cheerleading. The team attitude combined with regular practice seems to really help with establishing exercise as a regular thing. Plus, it teaches you to interact with others and learn other life lessons.
Get her involved early and often, says I!
Thanks!!!
Is there something mysterious about food and weight that she would not know? Fat people are not stupid nor do they lack the information. There is some other explanation. It is specially bad to visit your problems onto your children.
Being stupid or being psychologically unstable can easily lead to bad decisions. Either way or both ways, some folks just aren’t up to raising children. Sometimes support can help, but even then, some folks just are not up to it.