Exergames: Poor Parental Substitute For Overweight Or Obese Children

Thirty percent of U.S. kids aged 6-19 are overweight or obese. The main reasons given are poor diet and or lack of exercise. But those reasons take the problem out of context. Parents are supposed to raise children. This includes serving proper foods and guiding kids into healthy physical habits,i.e. EXERCISE. So it would seem that close to 30% of parents have not fulfilled their responsibilities.

Enter "exergames", they pick up where bad or no parental supervision leave off. These hybrid video game and exercise machine are found increasingly in school gyms around the country. The contraption couples a video game with an exercising component to encourage players to vigorously exercise and simultaneously be better able to win the video game. Isn't this pathetic? Why aren't the children doing mandatory physical education work outs? Why not team sports and the challenge of competing? It would be cheaper and a real-world instructor is more helpful. An instructor would also give children experience in taking instruction in a team or greater social atmosphere. This has far greater applications in later life.

Classical history is full of raising children with a strong physical component. Have schools done their job by graduating obese or near-invalidic children? Still parents have the primary responsibility in raising their own children. Maybe parents and their obese offspring should be discriminated against. How about paying higher insurance premiums? It is long past due to stop pretending that people who choose or are chosen for to be overweight should be treated equally with those who WORK at being fit.