I let my two older kids (10 and 12) roam the neighborhood with their friends, too. They go around on bikes screaming and yelling like any other kids in the past sixty years, and they are super thin, though I admit they eat more junk than they ought. (They love veggies, too, though, and eat much more “real food” than junk, so that helps).
We lived in Sweden and I never saw fat kids. Not ever, and we lived in a city for most of the time. People ate candy by the bagful, as well as tons of bread and beer. I absoultely think it is the way we process our food and take out good stuff when we pasteurize things to mkae the shelf life impossibly long. (This is merely an idle thought of mine as I am a dairy addict and actually lost weight in Sweden eating tons of cheese, sour creme and yogurt.)
Having taught middle school here in NC, I was SHOCKED at the amount of overweight or otherwise INCREDIBLY adult figures of kids as young as 11. There was nothing like that even when I was in HS (and I graduated in 1991, so not all that long ago). I don’t think my graduating class had as many girls with curvy figures (quickly spreading into obesity post age 13) as some of the sixth and seventh grade classes I have taught.
This entire article just screams out we are making the world “so safe” for our kids that we are just putting them at incredible risks. (As to the moms and dads worried about pedophiles; I am with you—my kids are trained to scream at the top of their lungs when a strange car comes their way and stops and run or ride bikes quickly towards other people. Sure they look goofy sometimes, but it beats them getting yanked into a car. We live in an area with few registered sex offenders, so I feel a little safer than some of you others may feel.)
I like to keep my little boys in sight of the house, because if the oldest one gets a crazy idea and I’m not nearby, we could all end up in jail. If they’re close to the house, one of the others will turn up saying, “Pat said we could yadda yadda yadda,” and I can stop them!
My girls (10 and 12) can go anywhere they can walk, as long as they’re together or with a brother, and they tell me where they’re going. The older boys (13 and 16) just have to let me know when they’ll be home.
I think part of the reason that middle-schoolers are bigger than we were in 6th grade (I graduated high school in 1984) is that they’re often older. It’s not unusual for me to meet 8th graders who are 15, while my son who just finished 8th grade is 13. (Quite tall and stout, though ... he’s the one who wants to sit inside, reading and snacking!)