Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

GLENN COOK: The obesity cure: free-range kids
Las Vegas Review-Journal ^ | 11 july 10 | GLENN COOK

Posted on 07/11/2010 9:00:13 AM PDT by rellimpank

Last week, I offered a different take on why so many kids are getting fat.

For once, it appears we can all agree on something: Today's youngsters don't get outside enough. That's a no-brainer.

But I have yet to hear anyone -- from first lady Michelle Obama, who's made reducing childhood obesity her personal crusade, to the advocacy groups that shake down the fast-food industry -- seriously address why kids don't get outside. And I can't see American kids slimming down until we do.

My conclusion: Children don't get outside because our current parenting culture prohibits unsupervised outdoor play. Today's kids don't have anywhere near the freedom that previous generations enjoyed.

Instead of exploring our neighborhoods and rounding up friends for outdoor play -- and getting a great workout in the process -- our kids are contained until parents or other adults can plan activities and accompany them outside. Which, in the age of stressed, working parents, is infrequent at best.

(Excerpt) Read more at lvrj.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: obesity
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-88 next last

1 posted on 07/11/2010 9:00:15 AM PDT by rellimpank
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: rellimpank

BULLSEYE!!


2 posted on 07/11/2010 9:02:24 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and proud of it. Those who truly support our troops pray for their victory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank

—followup to this—

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2546738/posts


3 posted on 07/11/2010 9:04:27 AM PDT by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank

I was a free range kid myself.


4 posted on 07/11/2010 9:06:47 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank

How can you be so clueless author? Parents cannot let their kids alone in the yard anymore. Too many pedophiles fueled often by easily obtained pornography.


5 posted on 07/11/2010 9:07:34 AM PDT by amihow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank

ALL so TRUE, but because of pornography and how it has made SO MANY DEVIANTS, it’s not safe for kids to go out on their own...it is VERY SAD.


6 posted on 07/11/2010 9:08:11 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion......the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank
Right on the money. It has a lot to do with the feminization of America. A lot of kids live in households dominated by a single female, and a lot of those kids are not allowed to go outside by themselves.
7 posted on 07/11/2010 9:09:04 AM PDT by marktwain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: amihow

OMG!! I SWEAR I did NOT see your comments before I made mine, but it only enforces what pornography has done to our entire society.


8 posted on 07/11/2010 9:09:10 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion......the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank

The mothers and father use to big of a shove when they slop them.


9 posted on 07/11/2010 9:09:30 AM PDT by org.whodat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank

We lived next to a swamp that contained hundreds of acres and I knew every inch of it. I went outside and my mother didnt see me any more until I came back for lunch.

We used to go to Washington DC when I was 12, My dad would drtop me off at the Smithsonian and pick me up hours later.

Of course that was before anyone heard of NAMBLA, before the Washington riots of 1968 , and before the times when it was illegal to tell a child that wasn’t your to behave themselves.


10 posted on 07/11/2010 9:11:38 AM PDT by Venturer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ann Archy; amihow

there are not enough stay at home moms to supervise the ‘hood anymore. once upon a time, if you were out playing, SOMEONE who saw you do anything wrong would call your mom and in a nonosecond you were in trouble. NOW we have to guard against the pedophiles with NO moms out there looking out their kitchen windows. those same moms are working mothers these days.


11 posted on 07/11/2010 9:12:07 AM PDT by tioga
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank
It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out, it is more than obvious. How are people going to let their kids outside to roam around (like I did) with child predators, roving gangs of thugs, pitt bulls and traffic? Even if those things are NOT actually out there in your neighborhood the evening news makes you think they are there.

Ah there it is again, the news media, our best friend! sarc//>>

12 posted on 07/11/2010 9:14:19 AM PDT by Ditter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank; xzins; All
You might enjoy this vanity:

(Vanity) In Praise of a Simpler Time, or, Dude, Where's My Childhood?

Cheers!

13 posted on 07/11/2010 9:16:01 AM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank; xzins
"Children don't get outside because our current parenting culture prohibits unsupervised outdoor play."M.

The reason the parenting culture became more protective, is because the moral culture of the country changed. It's no longer safe for the kids to roam the neighborhood. Too many sexual predators out there.

14 posted on 07/11/2010 9:16:15 AM PDT by DannyTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: amihow

The deviants have always been there but we didn’t let them continue to prey on children for decades. We used to put them in general population if they lived long enough to go to prison and then their days were numbered.

My great grandmother told me the story of a child molester in her town back in the early 1900s. Some local men took him for a midnight tour of the steel mill and he apparently had a tragic accident.


15 posted on 07/11/2010 9:16:49 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Venturer

You came home for lunch? I got on my horse and rode off and I didn’t come home until supper.


16 posted on 07/11/2010 9:17:40 AM PDT by Ditter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek
Free Range, I like it. I grew up outside with a pack of kids that played the sport in season in numerous pickup games without adult presence thank you very much. We hunted with pellet rifles and .22s on school property up by the railroad tracks. Minor cuts and scrapes would be taken care of by any parent without the need to call, text or e-mail the wounded kids parent unless it was serious. I think the most dangerous thing we did was riding FlexiFlyers downhill in the middle of the street. Try getting a Flexiflyer past the Consumer Prohibition Commission today!. Some how we all survived. Of course we didn't have Nintendo or computers to keep us indoors and TV was basically watch with your parents or Saturday morning westerns at a friends house. My grand kids can go outside and not see another kid for hours sometimes.
17 posted on 07/11/2010 9:21:32 AM PDT by dblshot (Insanity - electing the same people over and over and expecting different results.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: rellimpank

Well gees, I knew that. I don’t see too many kids playing outside these days. When I was a kid, we played outside. Good times.


18 posted on 07/11/2010 9:25:05 AM PDT by Ptarmigan (Remember The Great Ptarmigan/Rabbit War!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

Put the blame where it belongs. On the pornography industry, the Planned Parenthood types who have promoted irresponsible sexual behavior which reinformces every type of sexual attraction one might happen on for themselves and the freaking pedophiles themselves. Not the moms who are often working because some ex-father is out looking for his playgirl.


19 posted on 07/11/2010 9:26:43 AM PDT by amihow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

That kept them perverts in line.


20 posted on 07/11/2010 9:26:54 AM PDT by Ptarmigan (Remember The Great Ptarmigan/Rabbit War!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-88 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson