Around this time of year, Americans are likely to celebrate one or more of around 30 different religious and cultural holidays. Most of these festivities seem to involve gifts, merriment, and eating. Obesity and the holidays intersect in this “best of” compilation of some of the most inspiring and original ideas out there. Reminders are either paraphrased or quoted, of helpful ideas from Childhood Obesity News posts of bygone years.
The cold and calculating mechanisms of media advertising urge us to eat excessively, and to give other people excessive things, like chocolate-covered cherries or triple-dipped gingerbread, to eat. But it does not all stem from personal or corporate greed, oh no. People who urge you to eat until you get sick and hate yourself, operate from the most lovely and generous impulses in the world.
In their minds, what they want is for you to be joyful and happy, and they believe that an elevated calorie count equals bliss. They don’t understand, or pretend not to understand, or do not want to understand. Whatever the basic and basically well-meaning reason may be, the result is not good for us.
Good intentions
The holidays hold endless potential for trauma, most of it inflicted by people who sincerely want the best, and only the best, for us. Yet and still, harmful patterns from our childhood, and even our parents’ childhoods, leap out from behind the Christmas tree or down the chimney.
The varieties of awfulness are endless. Some parents start months beforehand, using the upcoming holiday as a truncheon or even a stun gun, administering threats and punishment. “I guess we’ll just tell Santa to skip this house this year. Nope, too late to apologize. Don’t bother looking all sad. You’ve gone and done it. No Christmas for you!”
Naturally, parents who do not want the next generation to inherit this kind of ugliness will go out of their way to create a good time, and that will probably involve a lot of treats. We need to take time to think more deeply, and find a better prescription for old wounds than “throw sugar at it.”
Look forward to non-food
In the old days, it was very easy for parents to keep young children away from unhealthful influences. Youngsters had no way to know what dangers they were protected from. Now, everybody has ways of knowing everything, and kids begging to go to 99 shows will run a parent ragged.
Good results might be had from planning that starts well ahead of the season. If there is a local events center or arena, a preplanned attendance at something really spectacular could help to dampen further demands. To see a live performance of The Nutcracker, a family doesn’t even have to celebrate Christmas. Such special occasions are cross-cultural.
How do we show children we love them without ruining their health? How do we restrain kids from accepting every offer of a free cookie or candy cane, without coming across like ogres? This next idea is hard and takes a lot of work and commitment, and it’s too late to implement it this year. But to have some say over what treats are served or allowed to be donated at your kids’ school next year, it might be worth joining whatever group has power over their school activities.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Image by Larry Lamsa/CC BY 2.0 DEED
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