$800 Fine for Parents of Obese Children in US Teerritory

Here we go again! Criminalizing parents! This time it is for children being overweight and also in an American territory some consider the 51st state. The regulation calls for overweight children to be evaluated if they are found to be obese they then go onto a wight loss program. They are re-evaluated after four months if the child is  not deemed to have not improved then the parents can be fined. You can read the original article here.

I am about to go on a rant so be warned!

This is blatantly ridiculous and is potentially harmful to the parent-child relationship. This legislation is supposed to force parents into making healthier choices for their children. However, what it will do is place the government into a place it does not belong. Anytime a government agency interferes with a parent-child relationship should be a matter of life and death. I understand this law is about quality  of life and not life and death. This being the case BUT OUT.

Parents and children know they have weight issues and getting pressure by the government will be more of a hinderance than a help.Why do people think that making a law is an answer to correcting human behavior. This law is making it a criminal offense to have an overweight child. They do say if it is medical or hormonal parents will be exempt. But honestly who do they think thy are? No one can control what another person puts into their mouths. Parents who work to help curb this problem, could have grandparents, sisters, brothers, babysitters the list goes on feeding their child the food they do not want them to have. Yet it will be the parent who is fined.

This is another example of how parenting is becoming a criminal offense. The government wants to tell adults how to parent their children and if  not obeyed they will fine you, take your child, or put you in jail. We need to wake up before we have the same Named Persons Program in America that they have in Scotland (see blog here.)  Here in the US parenting is quickly becoming a means of government control. I am very concerned about the health of our children and families.

Though the rhetoric is about the best interest of the child. The truth is in most cases no one is going to care more about the health and wee-being of a child than their biological parents. Anytime that bond is severed, hindered, or controlled the child suffers greatly. Children are dependent on the relationship they have with their parents even if that relationship is not perfect. None of them are by the way.

Having worked as an educational advocate as well as a  parent support and educator for parents who were dealing with the state I can tell you one thing the government does well is screw up family life. It was Arthur Miller in his play the Crucible who wrote "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." If we make the mistake of giving the government power over our family life we will find that eventually the government will have absolute power over it and family life will cease to exist.