Cape Karen
Television has sunk to a new low. Parents are being guilt-tripped into looking at their kids with a new eye to their future. Through the magic of computerized enhancements, on the new show, "Honey, We're Killing the Kids!" they're seeing their adorable, beloved children 'morphed' into computerized blow-ups of what they will look like at age forty. And, of course, it's not a pretty picture. (They end up looking dirty, disheveled and even worse than their 'already forty' parents.) Then, after viewing these ugly-Americans-to-be, the shamed parents are severely warned to stop feeding their kids like piglets. They are urged to stop allowing them to continue gorging themselves at the trough of fast foods, pastas, cookies, cakes and sugar-laden soft drinks, and are encouraged to get them outside and moving! Or else . . . they'll be contributing to their early demise.
Like parents don't have enough to worry about these days?
It goes without saying that our current sedentary lifestyle has created some pretty hefty folks around the country - and, for sure, thanks to the the hectic pace of life, the ka-zillion dollar, fat-laden fast-food industry, the federal and state cut-backs in school athletic programs and the preponderance of time spent in front of computers and televison sets, we're seeing lots of over-weight Americans waddling through the malls these days - but, to lay the entire blame for this "explosion" at the feet of loving parents seems unnecessarily cruel and heartless.
This show not only guilt-trips the parents, and shames them unmercifully in front of an audience of millions of viewers, (and they volunteer for this?) but, the show's health nutritionist, Dr. Lisa Hark, hands out her "new weekly menus" ~ made up of foods that most of us have never even heard of, and that we would go out of our way to avoid ~ even if we were a size six. This, from a woman so uptight, that if she were to really smile, permanent cracks would form all over her size-ten, bland if pretty, face. She has all the right credentials, and has lots of letters after her name ~ giving evidence of a life spent entirely in darkened study halls ~ but, unfortunately, she also has the personality of a light bulb before it's turned on.
I especially love it when she sends the family out food shopping ~ after dumping all their beloved fatty foods into the trash; and she sends them out shopping to buy . . . octopus legs, snails and squid, for their first "weekly diet challenge" which is designed to introduce the kids to healthy eating. O' yeah. . . we're all going to rush right out and find those recipes! And, when the kids ask mom at the grocery store, "Is this asparagus? while holding up a leek - well, then we know they're all in serious trouble!
After mom makes dinner, we then get to watch as the kids gag and spit-out all the food that she has put on their plates ~ this, after she has slaved away for three hours, trying to make those new, white slippery-slidey foods into a tasty meal for them. And, when they do gag and throw-up, we don't blame them one bit! We just want to call Dominoes, and have a gooey pizza delivered to their house immediately. And the frequent, "But, I don't LIKE it!" juvenile tantrums, usually performed with great gusto under the kitchen table, or heard from behind loudly slammed bedroom doors, are lots of fun, too.
The best part of this bad show are the weekly family outings. The family gets off the couch and goes for a bike ride; they climb a rock wall together; they ride horseback, they swim, or they take a ride in a hot air balloon - anything but sitting in the house in front of a screen, or at a table piled with junk food. They start to re-connect as a family, and to get some long-overdue exercise. Nothing wrong with that . . . but, those yuccky foods have gotta go! Just because you want the kids to eat healthy, doesn't mean parents should have to force slime down their throats, Dr. Lisa! I think this nutritionist needs to get a life. I think she needs to have a glazed doughnut, now and then; and maybe, just maybe . . . she even needs to get laid!
Don't get me wrong here, I'm all for having a healthy lifestyle change, and for reorganizing the family's food intake from junk food to fish, fruits and veggies ~ but, I would make it a lot more fun, and a whole lot more appetizing, than this stiff-lipped, seriously-dark-suited Dr. Lisa does. Let's face it, TLC, a slug could have done this show better.
I think it's a real shame that this subject, one so vital to the future health of our children, is being featured on national television in such a negative, demeaning and unappealing manner.
That said, I have to run now! My low fat, triple-layer, custard-filled chocolate cake is almost ready to take out of the oven.
Posted by Karen at May 30, 2006 10:19 AM