In this day and age, it’s not strange to see a child that is overweight. Of course, there are some children who can’t help their weight due to medical problems, genetics, or even because of the financial state of the family, but I think too many parents don’t stress enough to their children the dangers obesity can present to their health when they’re older.

Parents don’t realize that they may contribute to the unhealthiness their kids may partake in. Children get a lot of their eating habits from the people around them. A lot of parents don’t realize this. If a role model is always eating processed foods or fast food around a kid then it’ll most likely become ingrained in a child’s food choices. Parents only have so long until a child grows and becomes independent enough to feed themselves.

It falls on the parent to teach them to eat healthy because the child won’t care either way. It’s the parents’ fault for enabling their kids to eat unhealthy food all the time. If a child sees their role model eating fruits, vegetables, and home cooked meals a lot, that will most likely become a preference for them.

Each year obesity in young children rises. Data acquired by the CDC in 2015-16 showed that nearly 1 in 5 school-age children and young people aged 6 to 19 years in the United States have obesity. It’s a serious problem that isn’t taken seriously enough by the people who can prevent it. A lot more parents need to be more responsible and monitor the kind of food their kids are eating because diabetes is on the rise in young kids. Parents should be showing their kids how to eat properly. I’m not saying only eat healthy foods, but you have to create a balance. It’s okay to eat unhealthy sometimes, but don’t let it be something that becomes a normality.

There are plenty of examples at schools. I’ve seen many teenagers eating chips and drinking soda at 8AM in the morning. Those bad habits they get from their parents may be passed down to their kids when they raise them.

Adults have to think more on the influence they have on a child’s diet. Obesity shouldn’t be a normality. It’s hard to avoid if you’re not taught properly and even tougher to beat once you’re there.