Should parents be charged for letting their kids overeat?

When parents allow their child permission to devulge in many inappropriate foods, it starts a slow engine of destruction to their bodies in the future, physically and emotionally. This habit leads towards different factors of death, whether the parents know it or not. Some parents don't have enough funding to give their kids healthy food; others are simply not informed about how to maintain good health; yet others knowingly give unhealthy food to their kids because they themselves cannot cut their habits. Where should society draw the line as a whole and should the government be held somewhat accountable and thus do something to fix this problem? Or does this really lie only in the industries that push this way of living forward? What should really be done?

Aside from education there should be no government involvement in the matter.

Healthy food is not nearly as expensive as junk food.

A culture that is less exploitive of labor and more conducive to education and having a parent in the home is needed.

More police-state rules and guilt are not the answer except for the few who would profit from it. I can just imagine how well mandatory nutritional counseling would be received. Probably result in a lot of dead nutritionists.

i believe the parents are in fault for allowing all the food intake. it will hurt the kids int he future

i don't think the Gov't should b accountable for what the child eats, I think the parents should b. I think parents need to b more involved in their children's life esp w/ food etc. W/ what they eat at school or take w/ them to school or dinner or bet. meals.

Yes, some kids r naturally overwt by genes but in general, I don't think kids enough veggies, fruits & drink enough good juice & water. But it's hard to do so if the parents don't do it as well. So the kids see their parents & what they eat, so they do the same. It has to be a all around effert.

When people are trying to sue McDonald's for their health issues I think they need to look at the point of origin and not blame McDonald's but the reason why they were eating there, who took em and those things - cause if it was the parents they are just as responsible as McDonald's is, if not more so because they condoned it and encouraged it.
Places like McDonald's aren't the best for anyone to eat at, but instead of suing them, look at the instigator, and if the parents are indulging in that type of behavior than I truly believe its a form of child abuse - you may not be hitting the child but their actions are directing affect the health and life of their kids.

no,
coz childeren just dont listen, i remember my father tried forever to make me eat breakfast but i never listened untill now that im on my own and much older as i became health consios by my self!
i know many parents try so hard but kids just dont listen.
the best way is to have a healthy system in the house from the biggining.

Yes and No.

The government should have a more active role in a child's life, and should do more to ensure that children are eating healthy. Children in school should be fed better foods, and not be allowed the junk food they get access to.

That being said, the government has no place in a parents role, and this is up to the parents if they want to feed their children good or let them become an eyesore on America.

they shouldn't do anything kids are over weight and stuff cause the don't exercise they sit around all day and night playinggames they don't play outside or anything it dosen't matter how much food u eat and its there choice

People need to take responsibility for their actions. This includes parents. It's not McDonald's fault, it's not the government's business. What needs to be done, needs to be done by individuals and no one else. I don't eat junk food a lot, but if the government gets involved it will be a mess. There will probably be ridiculously high taxes on "bad" foods, and registration to purchase it, just like psuedophedrine now.

i believe in this day and age that parents often do what is convienent and not what is always right. with working parents you get home and you don't feel like cooking so it is easy to order pizza or go to mcdonalds and could be classified as societies fault or the parents. i do not allow either of my children to have candy or pop unless special occasions and i always have fresh fruit in my house and make them have healthy snacks. i am also a stay at home mom so it is easier for me to have the energy to cook for my children. as for do i think that should parents be charged for that, no i don't. i don't tell people how to parent their children. and as long as there is not abuse or neglect going on then i think that they should just be advised of how unhealthy it is. otherwise you really are infringing on their rights. i think that there needs to be more knowledge out there on nutrition myself. just my opinion

so you would have the gov't punish parents for something they don't know, or cannot avoid?
and that's supposed to help the kids how?

let's understand, the fast food industry spends millions upon millions of dollars trying to figure out ways to get kids to eat the stuff they make.
sometime, go to the dented can store. around here it's called Grocery Outlet. you find 10 kinds of sugar cereal on the shelf. almost no healthy cereal. why? sugar cereals are so profitable that they think little of dumping any they don't sell.

the same goes for HoHos and DingDongs. if it's sugar, kids know about it, and ask for it.

when i was a kid, people handed out free cigarettes when we were coming out of high school. the gov't stepped in and did something.
why cannot the same be done with junk food?
"TOO MUCH INDUSTRY REGULATION".
oh, you mean too much interference with stock profits.
get real.
which is more important.

Do you mean the parents should be charged as criminals? That seems very harsh to me. Will we have Diet Police checking our shopping carts? Will parents of fat children serve jail sentences? Will school personnel be required to weigh the children and report "offending parents" of the fat kids to the local police?

I would resent any more intrusion by the government into my life, or the lives of my grandchildren. (By the way, my grand-kids are not fat. One is even skinny!) I think the education of parents on a healthy diet for their children is a much better idea.

yes they should be charged if it is having an affect on the child's health (the defn. of abuse) and it will. who do you think gets to pick up the tab when these kids are grown and too sick and fat to work and support themselves or pay for their own health care?...us, the tax payers and guess what! we'll be giving them food stamps so that they can stuff their faces with more food, free food. parents should take responsibility for teaching their kids about proper nutrition and exercise. too many parents are afraid to say NO to their kids and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that chicken nuggets and fries in front of the play station seven days a week will make you fat

my niece would eat and eat and eat. finally, the doctors discovered she had a disease causing this, but it took a long time before they did.

Well, it is bad for them to, but sometimes when a parent is obese, so is the child. Thats eating habits.

Being a Teacher I see MANY MANY overweight children. Right now I have a 3 year old in my class who wears a size 10/12 clothing.She's THREE, that's insane. I feel so bad for this little girl. She can hardly sit down on the floor,she doesn't run and play with the other children,she doesn't sleep at naptime and when she does she has trouble breathing. As Adults we all KNOW what a life of being overweight causes for us, from health problems to self confidence issues and so on. WHY would ANY Parent want their child to be overweight? Yes some people including children do have certain Genes and medical issues that may cause them to become overweight but it's almost always a combo of both medical issues AND eating habits that causes children to become overweight. We ALL need to work to properly educate Parents to feed their children healthy. As Adults we are constantly encouraging one another to loose weight, get down to a healthy size and eat better.WHY don't we do that for our children? Children learn their eating habits at a very young age and most of them carry those habits into their Adult life. An overweight child often ends up being an overweight adult. Eating healthy does NOT cost tons of money AND if time is an issue (no time to cook healthy after a long day at work) there's plenty of healthy options that are Frozen and in Cans. Even Fast Food places have MANY healthy choices on menu's now. Cookies and Ice Cream should be given to children as an occasional treat, NOT part of an everyday diet. Until a child is old enough to make his/her own food choices and prepare his/her own meals WE as PARENTS are responsible for what goes into that child's mouth. Why would anyone slowly cause their child a Lifetime of health problems? We go Food Shopping and we need to plan healthy meals and lunches for our children. To me causing a child to become overweight because we don't have "time" to cook or because we are too lazy to cook is Child Abuse. Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are just SOME of the outcomes of an Overweight child. There's so much advice out there for parents , so many sources to turn to when you need help getting a child to loose weight and need idea's as to how to feed a child healthier meals. Your child's Dr is also there for that reason.
The 3 year old in my classroom IS overweight because of her diet. Everyday she comes to school with a lunch box filled with chips, juice boxes,cookies, and other junk foods. She doesn't make those food choices, her parents do. A bag of apples costs around the same amount that a bag of Chips does. Diet or low calorie drinks cost the same amount as the higher calories ones. Low fat dairy products cost the same as the higher fat dairy products, and so on. If you shop smart, the cost of eating healthy is the SAME as eating crappy if not less. We need to accept responsibility for our children's Diet and Lifestyle. If you don't hand a child a cookie, then they won't eat it. If you allow a child to sit and watch tv all day long then that's what a child will do. Until a child is old enough and educated enough to make their own food choices, it's up to US as parents to make it for them.Bottom line. We need to be good role Models for our children. I was once an Overweight Adult and I do NOT want my future children to EVER go through what I did . As Parents if we deny our children a healthy diet, and help them to become overweight and sick from many diseases then YES, that's child abuse and someone else needs to step it. If someone was slowly giving their child Poison to kill them, that would be defined as Child Abuse. Allowing your child to overeat and swallow junk food all day long and become overweight is then also Child Abuse. Either of the above can result in death.Anything that indanger's aa child's health and wellbeing is Child Abuse.

i've seen this in talk show, and some kids under 4 are severly overweight, the parents purposely feed them non-stop. pizza, fast food, ice cream, junk food, and food with lot's sauce. it's a certain type of abuse. it can hurt as much as not feeding enough. if it's as overdone as what i saw on the show, then they should be charged or at least sent to therapy to find out why they have the need to do that, and learn to stop.