The future

Last night I was babysitting. I love doing it, because I've been minding them since they were babies. They are now 5 and 3, and hilarious!!!!

Anyway, we had lots of fun, we did painting and we played on the green with the other kids from the estate. Luckily it was a beautiful evening and we stayed out till right before bed-time! Having had a lot of "training" on my gap year, I've become an expert in "what time is it mr.wolf?", "stuck in the mud" , "hide and seek" etc. etc.

So anyway, we were out on the green, myself and my two charges, and a bunch of other kids came out to play, so we all joined together. Now, there must have been maybe 10 kids. Minus my two, makes 8. And out of that 8, I would say that 6 or so of them were overweight. Not terribly so, definitely not obese, but too heavy for their size. And I don't mean chubby baby fat, I mean fat fat. A few got really out of breath just from playing chasing. Too out of breath for the amount of exertion.

They were all under 12. And it made me sad to see this. When I was in primary school, there were only two slightly chubby girls in my class of 17. We weren't allowed sweets in our lunchboxes, and we used to run about for all of our breaks.

Now I don't know what it is that made these kids overweight. But it seems to me that it might just be from not being "kids" for long enough. What I mean, is that another thing that I noticed was how "grown up" the little girls were. The outfits, the jewellery, the shoes. And at the same time they were still little girls, who screamed and giggled and ran away with delight whenever the "wolf" decided it was "dinner time!". Maybe they spend too much time trying to be older and not enough time running around playing games. Or maybe its because people are afraid (and for good reason) to let their kids play outside on their own, confining them to the house and supervision.

But enough hypothesizing. The point of all this was that it made me wonder whats going to happen to these kids when they hit adolescence? Go on into their twenties, thirties, forties.... One thing I know about weight is that once its on, its really hard to get rid of. And it would be so tragic for them to face a lifetime of obesity and the problems it brings.

I know that in the UK and the US, that there is already a huge problem with childhood obesity, and that many children are now predicted to be outlived by their parents. But I didn't think that it was happening here so much. Obviously I was wrong.

Is this the future?