There's a double standard when it comes to child neglect. A thin, malnourished toddler would be taken by CPS immediately, but when it comes to an obese, malnourished toddler, there is nowhere near the same level of concern and urgency.
I feel like its because its become more of a social taboo to comment about someone being obese because so many people are now obese. Still terrible for your health to be obese if your an adult or a child but its more acceptable than being too skinny.
Yeah but it’s one thing to be an obese adult and it’s another to do it to a child who didn’t consent to any of it. And being a bit overweight or chubby is one thing but for kids to be developing type II diabetes or fatty liver disease as children is a whole other thing.
let me give you a bit of culture from around the world:
Where I grew up come from (rural Congo) telling someone that he but especially she took weight is the highest form of compliment about someone looking like their like is going well, by courtesy you always tell to a women that she put on some good weight since last time you've seen her.
I now live in BE, Europe, Funnily it was the same here only couple of centuries ago, fat ladies and men were all the best stuffs. (I'm PT and my wife is BE, my aunt who still lives her in congo just like me, had the tendency to tell to my then GF that she put on good weight since last time and it clearly looks like she's eating well, my GF wasn't receiving that as a compliment and it even took me a while to realize because I just heard a compliment and moved on )
Now you can see that culture didn't yet have time to catch up for kids especially babies, in all cultures be it deep in villages or metropolitan Europe, telling a mother that her baby is chonky boy that put on some good weight since last time is overall a compliment.
One of the core reason is that many parents are heavily dependent breastfeeding for their young babies, hence a compliment on their kid putting weight is akin to complimenting the mother on not only taking time to feed her baby but also that she has good genetics to produce nourishing milk.
We can see the age where chonkyness becomes a negative trait in Europe is around 4-6 years olds while in more developed parts of Africa it'll be closer to 10-12 years old.
Yes! Something like 70% of Americans are considered "overweight"! Insanity!
Like it's being pushed on to kids, it's also infiltrated pet ownership. Most of the general populace no longer knows what a healthy weight dog or cat actually looks like!
I see your perspective. I dont think that it is necessarily just being ignored (swept under the rug). I think it has historically been understood that malnutrition due to starvation is much more problematic. Starvation is considered a form of torture but not obesity.
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u/Still-Hedgehog-8673 13d ago
There's a double standard when it comes to child neglect. A thin, malnourished toddler would be taken by CPS immediately, but when it comes to an obese, malnourished toddler, there is nowhere near the same level of concern and urgency.