Many parentsresort to excessive diets to keep their children in shape, which is like defying the current trend of obesity amongst children. They force their kids to undergo rigorous diet in order to lose weight. Most of the parents are influenced by TV ads targeting small kids to change their eating habits.
In a recent Vogue issue, there was an article regarding a mother's effort to control her 7 year old daughter's diet. This article in which Dara Lynn Weiss, mother of Bea appears to force a diet regime on her daughter caused a fuming controversy and a huge outrage amongst people.
According to the article, Bea was diagnosed and found to be obese by their family doctor. It is quite obvious that a new healthy diet would have been beneficial to Weiss’s daughter, Bea; however some part of the article reveals that Weiss stopped her daughter from eating some meals because of the snacks she ate at her school.
Weiss restricting her daughter’s caloric intake is very incorrect and disappointing for small kids and young mothers everywhere. As a parent, Weiss had been a terrible mother and portrayed a negative image towards her daughter to drive her to diet and stop eating in excess. The article posed some huge questions as to why are people getting over-obsessed over weight loss and even worse is the fact that they’re demanding a lot from their kid in order to make them fabulously-fit. No wonder, Weiss have come across as a case of ‘the worst parenting possible’. It’s very important for parents like Weiss to get better educated in ways that support positive and healthy lifestyle instead of damaging the confidence of their child in order to lose weight.
Weiss herself has faced the body image issue and weight loss problem, which is believed to be a reason why she encouraged her daughter to follow strict diet. She even admitted of trying some ‘ridiculous’ ways to shred body weight, like using laxatives, fasting and obsessive dieting. This type of lifestyle alone causes her to be unhealthy and a wrong way to teach her own daughter to follow these steps. Losing unwanted weight by such wrong methods is unhealthy not only for grownups, but also for small children. Moreover, when food involves emotional fundamentals, it can create anxiety disorders as well as eating disorders.
Weiss also admitted in the article that she deprived Bea of dinner and badgers her over snacks eaten at her friends place. How is such eating habit encouraging Bea to lose weight in order to gain her good health is a tough query. One must say that it’s quite unfortunate for Bea to undergo such harsh parenting methods. This type of behavior from her mother could cause Bea a lot of trouble in future with her body image.
No matter how much of an optimist you are, this story has over-stepped the boundaries of parenting and selfishness. Maybe it was a hype-craving story as Weiss has landed a book deal amidst all the attention she’s attracting, but one thing is for sure – it should be about positive reinforcements when it comes to children and not about choice grabbing enforcements.
