Who is responsible for child obesity?

There are many things that cause children to be heavier. There is no pat answer for this. Some kids are naturally bigger, it happens. It doesn't matter what they eat, how they eat etc. It's genetics. Others though many things can contribute to them being heavier. One of the main issues though I see adding to the problem is the lack of recess. When I was a child we had recess for a good 30 minutes and then at lunch time we got an hour for lunch, once we were done eating we could go play. We had a playground with swings, slide, merry-go-round (the type you run and jump on while it spins), monkey bars, plus the area for hop scotch and ball games. The kids today are lukcy if they get 15 minutes worth of recess all day and they have nothing for which to play with. Many of the schools around my area have no playground. It's just a grass field and maybe a field where they can play a bit of ball but that's it. They have very little activity all day. Then they go home and since child services and many do-gooders say a child (no matter the age) cannot be left to play outside without an adult, even if there are many kids out there, most aren't allowed to play outside. Parents have to get dinner ready, clean house, etc especially if they have been working all day. So they stay inside and don't get the activity they would otherwise. So by the time dinner is done with, homework finished it's time to get ready for bed. Out of the whole day they may have had a total or 30 minutes of physical activity if they are lucky. Gee no wonder we have a problem with weight in kids.

Both parents and the government. If you teach your child healthy eating habits than the government should offer healthy school lunches. And fastfood chains have a big influence on politics. More than we think. (Watch Supersize Me)

It is the responsiblity of the parents to teach their kids from the start to eat correctly. I personally am tired of everyone blaming everyone else because their kids are overweight. You should be teaching your child to eat properly, to get outside and play and to limit the video games. I am wondering who the parent is anymore since no one wants to take responsibility for their lifestyles and prefer to blame the restaurants for unhealthy eating habits. While I do believe we should be informed when we go out to eat, I also think it is common sense to know that the dish with chicken and brocolli with pasta and the cheese sauce is going to be high in calories and not healthiest thing for you.

I don't think it's any one parties fault. Most people say parents, but even getting your kids to eat can be an uphill battle. Certainly, parents must purchase the food children eat, but they are acting against hours and hours of marketing that children see in movies and TV. I recently saw a news story about kids and snack foods endorsment deals. Kid's favorites like Dora the Explorer, Scooby Doo, etc. have "endorsment" deals for sugary snacks and children invariably want to eat whatever their favorite character tells them too. On the news story, they took fresh fruits and covered them with stickers of characters and kids opted to eat those, also! LOL, Who knew it was that easy? Another problem is that many school districts don't place a high importance on physical fitness. The elementary school down the street from my house gives each child two PE classes a week. I was amazed when I found this out -- we had PE every day when I was a child (and I'm not that old, only 23) and we were spending that time being active! I think lastly it's the fault of all of us a society. This epidemic is representative of a larger problem that we have. We don't stand up to fast food corportations or want to make them accountable, we don't ask our government for fatty food regulations, we don't boycott marketing agencies that manipulate our children to move products.

Parents. I for one is guilty, one of my children is obese coz I tolerated his eating habits, he does not eat veggies, he loves junks, and most of all, now, he knows how to cook and did his own meal which made his eating out of control. Food has become his fantasy, goodness, it's okay if he won't be eating all of them.