Many people naively hold on to the “it will never happen to me” mentality when it comes to their personal lives. People may act recklessly with their own lives and health believing that “bad things” (i.e. illness, accidents, etc.) will only happen to other people. This way of thinking can lead down a dangerous path and cause much harm and heartache in the life of the individual. These thinking errors may prevent people from accepting personal responsibility for the situation in which they find themselves and from making the necessary changes in their lives to become more mature, prudent adults. When these individuals become parents they will often project this flawed way of thinking onto their children if these inappropriate ways of thinking are not corrected .

Parents that refuse to accept responsibility for their own situation and behavior often refuse to face the truth about their children. These types of parents refuse to believe their their children would behave badly, be unkind to others, or have behavior problems at school. While failing to acknowledge and correct inappropriate behavior is harmful enough to the children, these same parents are now refusing to believe that their children are not getting the recommended daily exercise even though the children’s weight suggests otherwise. According to a 2007 report, approximately 17 percent of boys and 16 percent of girls are considered overweight or obese. These numbers have been on the rise over the past 12 years and will most likely continue to rise if parents continue to ignore this detrimental health trend.

It seems that most parents falsely believe that their children get the recommended 60 minutes of exercise each day. If every parent correctly reported their children’s activity level, then it would seem that childhood obesity would be on the decline. Therefore, one may assume that parents are overestimating the amount of physical activity undertaken by their children on a daily basis. When parents are ready and willing to accept responsibility for their children’s inactivity and take the necessary steps toward helping their children develop a more active lifestyle, then a decline in childhood obesity statistics could be expected. Until that time comes parents need to take a long, hard, truthful look at their children and begin helping their children make healthy choices, such as exercising at least 60 minutes each day.

One of the best gifts you can give your child is just a few minutes of your time

http://www.kidsgoape.com

Kids that lose their Dads

In a research study commissioned by family lawyers at Mischcon de Reya, and carried out on 4000 parents and children has found that one in three children permanently loses touch with a parent after a divorce, and it is usually the father.

The research found that one in five parents said after separation their objective was to make the experience as unpleasant as possible for the other half. A fifth of the children said they felt used, lonely and isolated.

For years there has been an outcry from various watchdog and consumer advocate groups across the globe in regard to professional models and the negative affects these models have on young, impressionable girls. The pictures of professional models used in advertising are often airbrushed to give the appearance that the model is thinner, has fewer wrinkles, and has a more beautiful skin tone that she does in actuality. Some groups have decried this technique stating that these pictures present unrealistic, unattainable, and manufactured beauty and that many girls have suffered physically and emotionally in their pursuit of the “perfect” body or look. Beauty, it seems, is no longer in the eye of the beholder but in the click of the computer’s mouse.

It has recently come to light, thanks to a BBC documentary entitled My Supermodel Baby, that adult male and female models are not the only ones to whom airbrushing techniques are applied. As appalling as it may seem, several publications that regularly feature children on the cover of or in the pages of their magazines and catalogs have admitted to airbrushing pictures of babies and children to make them appear more attractive. Some within the industry have confessed to making alterations to the baby’s or child’s skin tone and eyes. Industry representatives have also asserted that creases in the baby’s arms or legs may be removed as well. All of these steps are taken in an effort to make these children more appealing to the eye.

Undoubtedly there are many parents that look at baby magazines and wonder why their child is not more attractive. They see children with bright eyes, even skin-tones, and no creases or wrinkles in their skin. Just as pictures of airbrushed models makes young girls feel inferior, viewing page after page of beautiful, perfect babies can make a parent feel that their child is in some way inferior to these “ideal” children they see in the pages of the magazines. Parents may begin to resent their child and his or her lack of “attractiveness.” Some parents may even take steps to make their child appear more beautiful, such as restricting the child’s diet so the child will lost their baby fat. A decision such as this could have extremely detrimental affects to the health of the child. Parents may project their displeasure of their child’s appearance onto the child making the child feel inferior, worthless, and unwanted.

While it may be several years down the road before the full measure of the consequences of airbrushed baby pictures is known, one can be assured that there will be consequences for these reckless actions. Just as eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia in girls have been connected to the beauty ideal espoused by the fashion world and its models, parents and their “less than perfect” children will likely experience physical, emotional, and mental problems connected to the airbrushed babies seen in various publications.