generalparenting

Do you pack your kids lunches? If you do why? The reason I ask this is because my children, for as long as I can remember, have always thought it was a big deal when I packed there lunch. Usually they only eat what is at school but as they are getting older I am considering packing their lunches more often. See my daughter’s school offers both breakfast and lunch which ends up being a life saver to me money wise but she started telling me what her choices are for meals and I’m not happy with them. For breakfast there are donuts and cheese rolls and lunch there is always pizza as an option. There aren’t very many options that are healthy and according to my daughter, if you are near the middle to the end of the line they are all gone when you get there any way. So the choices aren’t real healthy. I guess if I want to make sure she is getting nutrition and not fat I better start packing it myself and send her out of the house AFTER she has eaten some good old fashioned oatmeal or something like that. I want my kids to be healthy, not eating the cheapest garbage the school district could afford. Any way, that’s my ramble for the day, enjoy the rest of yours.

Have you ever looked at the cloths for plus size adults? In popular, affordable, retail stores the selection is next to none. It’s even worse for kids. It seems every selection of jeans do not exceed the size of ten. The shirts are even worse. The cloths they have for plus size usually consist of cloths that look like you would see a grandma wear. They are much more appropriate for an older adult. I don’t know how boys cloths are but with girls cloths it is ridiculous. If you are looking for nice plus size girls cloths (especially teen) you are going to pay for them. You won’t be finding jeans for $12.99, you are going to be paying $35.99 and up. Places like Fashion Bug Plus have nice cloths for teens of all sizes and that’s one of my favorite places but for someone such as myself on a limited income waiting for sales and buying things out of season are a must. So what is my big complaint? Affordable retail stores!! When are they going to start carrying cloths that fit the heavier kids? When this problem is brought to the managers attention they answer with a generic answer saying they don’t choose what is shipped to their stores. Maybe if enough people complained about this they would start shipping what these kids need. So my suggestion to this problem is, If you have a child who is in a size 10 up please complain when you can’t find cloths that are age appropriate in your child’s sizes.

I have been over weight for the past 7 years bouncing up and down the whole time. I eat healthy and small portions but because of medication it is a necessary evil. Now my oldest daughter is becoming over weight and I’m not sure how to handle it. She always seems to be hungry and even though we don’t have junk food in the house she always seems to be eating something that’s bad for her. She hates salads, fruit, and vegetables and I’m not sure how to change that. I have tried several different recipes and even frozen foods that are on the healthier side, she just won’t eat it. When all we have is food that she doesn’t like she just goes to friends houses and eats there. Her friends seem to be living on fast food and garbage but they are like a size three compared to my daughter who looks at food and gains ten pounds. I don’t know how to help her. She has gotten so down on herself that she has just given up. She has tried watching what she eats but like a lot of other people with weight issues instead of watching the numbers on the scale go down she sees them creep up then she gets frustrated and starts eating crap again. I just don’t know how to help her. She won’t talk to a counselor about her food addiction, she won’t even talk to her family doctor. When she talks to me she just cries. How does a parent help their child start exercising and eating right when she feels all hope is gone? I wish I had the answer because I would love for this to no longer be a problem for her. I’m afraid I am going to have to wait until she is ready to commit to changing her life but what if that never happens?

I woke up this morning and knew right away that I would need my heating pad as my back cried out in pain and every joint in my body ached. I rolled out of bed (literally) and wondered whether or not I should even bother to make my bed knowing that at some point today I will probably laying down with my winter’s best friend my heating pad. I came to the computer and turned it on. While I waited for it to load I looked for my heating pad being careful not to stretch to far or move to fast. I decided against making my bed. The longer I stood the more I realized it would be sooner not later that I would be laying down again. I sat at the computer after getting in layers of clothing trying to warm my bones. I was not cold but I could feel the chill in my joints. I used to love the rain when I was younger but now it just means pain and things like Aleve, Asprin, Ibuprophin, Tylenol, heating pads, and lots of adjusting and readjusting my positioning. I can’t seem to sit in one position for real long so I have to get up and stand for a little bit or move to the bed and lay for a bit. Cooking today will consist of me sitting in a chair in front of the stove so that I’m not making myself stand for any length of time. The kids will have to do the cleaning for the next couple of days while the weather is like this. I used to take prescription medications but they would just make me dopey and they didn’t work that well any way. So now I just have to grit my teeth and try to deal with this like I do every damp day of the year and hope the heating pad relieves some of the pain.

I see kids all the time in all age ranges being chubby to full blown obese. Now many people will blame the parents but I myself am over weight because of meds and I have one over weight child; however, I have two children who are physically active and have little six packs for stomachs. Now I don’t see how that is possible if I am the reason my oldest child is over weight. I have never been big on T.V. for the kids or video games but my oldest child discovered the joys of both at friends houses. She tends to do both when she isn’t at home except for the occasional walk around town with her friends. I don’t know how to get her to become more physically active. I wish she would have never found games and T.V. As she gets older she feels that doing any kind of exercise admits a problem with her weight which she will admit to family but would rather her friends not realize she knows she has a problem. Here comes peer pressure again. It’s not cool to be exercising even though 90% of her friends are naturally skiney. It’s not cool to walk around town and it’s not cool to diet unless you are anorexic which my daughter is not so she hides what she eats and she does no physical activity except when her friends feel like it. It’s hard to be over weight, I know from experience but I can’t imagine being over weight as a child. I also know that in most cases it is not the parents fault. Does anyone really think a parent wants to sit back and watch their child’s health deteriorate because of weight issues? I encourage watching the junk food that she gets at her friends houses, I encourage walking around town, and I provide a healthy diet. What else can a parent do?