What happened to being a parent?

[David]

Junk food adverts are to be banned before the 9pm watershed.

Is this political? Hope not.

But can somebody help me out here, what happened to parents being, you know, parents?

Educating their kids, ensuring their kids eat healthy and if they start to gain weight, put them on a diet.

I just fail to see how this makes a difference, ok, it could remove some kids asking for a McDonald’s when a cheeseburger comes on the screen, but isn’t this where parenting comes in again?

When was the last time they had a McDonald’s, are they gaining weight, would this be sensible, questions that the parent should ask themselves.

If a child is obese through a poor diet, to me that’s on the parent, the parent that does the food shopping, cooks meals and can send them to school with healthy options for the child….that parent which has helped facilitate the obesity still free to view these junk food ads after 9pm.

At the same time we have football governing bodies trying to ban gambling sponsorships as seeing 32Red written on a shirt just reminds me to load myself with debt on the roulette tables.

The laughable thing is, they can still advertise online so all that TV advertising revenue will be shifted on to ads in apps such as Snapchat, Tik Tok and Facebook, companies based outside the UK. Great.

[Wolfie]

True but what would you propose do do to the parents for raising overweight or unhealthy children? Get social services in?

Unhealthy adults tend to raise unhealthy kids. We’ve got to break the cycle and if this helps a bit, then it’s a good thing. 
 

Still far too much unnecessary sugar in food as well - which would be my priority to sort. 

[David]

1 minute ago, Wolfie said:

True but what would you propose do do to the parents for raising overweight or unhealthy children? Get social services in?

Unhealthy adults tend to raise unhealthy kids. We’ve got to break the cycle and if this helps a bit, then it’s a good thing. 
 

Still far too much unnecessary sugar in food as well - which would be my priority to sort. 

Not a lot you can do to the parents.

Agree the cycle needs to be broken, but fail to see how banning adverts before 9pm will have much of an impact, as you say it’s unhealthy adults that tend to raise unhealthy kids, it’s the unhealthy adult that will still see these adverts….

[JoetheRam]

A lot of people aren't equipped to be good parents.  They've never been shown how - their dad ran away and their mum spent her money on fags and bingo. Or their mum had an affair and their dad was a drunk. 

Abusing themselves by abusing their kids (which letting their kids become obese is a form of) is just one symptom of our sick society.

In such situations people are more vulnerable to the malign influence of billion dollar marketing (lack of role models, poor education, low levels of personal discipline) so I think curtailing their presence is probably a good thing but I don't think the effect will be that great.

It's a sticking plaster on a double broken leg.

 

[Stive Pesley]

Because god knows it's hard enough being a parent as it is, without having to fight against the insidious influence of advertising on top of it all

 

[Hathersage Ram]

1 hour ago, David said:

Junk food adverts are to be banned before the 9pm watershed.

Is this political? Hope not.

But can somebody help me out here, what happened to parents being, you know, parents?

Educating their kids, ensuring their kids eat healthy and if they start to gain weight, put them on a diet.

I just fail to see how this makes a difference, ok, it could remove some kids asking for a McDonald’s when a cheeseburger comes on the screen, but isn’t this where parenting comes in again?

When was the last time they had a McDonald’s, are they gaining weight, would this be sensible, questions that the parent should ask themselves.

If a child is obese through a poor diet, to me that’s on the parent, the parent that does the food shopping, cooks meals and can send them to school with healthy options for the child….that parent which has helped facilitate the obesity still free to view these junk food ads after 9pm.

At the same time we have football governing bodies trying to ban gambling sponsorships as seeing 32Red written on a shirt just reminds me to load myself with debt on the roulette tables.

The laughable thing is, they can still advertise online so all that TV advertising revenue will be shifted on to ads in apps such as Snapchat, Tik Tok and Facebook, companies based outside the UK. Great.

I have to say this from David is a very condescending post. Why ban smoking adverts etc if its just down to the parents. Obviously it's up to the Parents to guide and educate, but having such adverts makes this very difficult

 

[Boycie]

A debate on fast food.

I’m lovin it.

[sage]

1 hour ago, JoetheRam said:

A lot of people aren't equipped to be good parents.  They've never been shown how - their dad ran away and their mum spent her money on fags and bingo. Or their mum had an affair and their dad was a drunk. 

Abusing themselves by abusing their kids (which letting their kids become obese is a form of) is just one symptom of our sick society.

In such situations people are more vulnerable to the malign influence of billion dollar marketing (lack of role models, poor education, low levels of personal discipline) so I think curtailing their presence is probably a good thing but I don't think the effect will be that great.

It's a sticking plaster on a double broken leg.

 

That is why the defunding of SureStart has been such a disaster. 

[David]

5 minutes ago, Hathersage Ram said:

I have to say this from David is a very condescending post. Why ban smoking adverts etc if its just down to the parents. Obviously it's up to the Parents to guide and educate, but having such adverts makes this very difficult

Sorry if you feel that way, but it was in no way meant to be condescending at all, I also wouldn’t ban any adverts myself personally for legally accessible products, including smoking. 

Is smoking bad for your health? Of course, we all know that now, but so is alcohol, is that next on the list where we’re hiding it behind counters in shops under shutters.

We’re heading down a slippery slope, will branded clothes be next, trying to stop kids wanting the latest Nike and Adidas trainers, putting parents into debt as they pile clothes on credit cards and pay day loans.

No more fast cars as it glorifies speeding on the roads and kids go out there trying to be the next Lewis Hamilton.

Feels like we’re trying to remove responsibility by just attempting to hide things out of sight, wrap us up in cotton wool.

Having a child is a huge responsibility, and with that comes education, I understand it’s hard at times to say no to kids, but this is where education comes in, explaining why they can’t eat cheeseburgers everyday is part of that.

It’s not 100% on parents, schools should also be held responsible to a certain level, replace chips with mash on the menus, burgers for chicken breasts.

Teaching them subjects that will not help shape their future careers, bring more fitness classes in. 

Ultimately though, I do feel the bulk of the responsibility should lie with the parent.

[Hathersage Ram]

David, as much as I agree to a large extent, this is some utopian world you seek

 

[David]

Maybe so, think this irritated me more as the other day Tom Lawrence and footballers being role models on the main board, something I can’t get on board with.

As a kid I had Wanchope’s name on the back of the shirt, never looked up to him in any way (other than height), he was just a footballer I enjoyed watching.

Now led to believe that footballers are role models and having players like Tom Lawrence drink driving sends out the wrong message to kids, glorifies it in some way.

Remember going go games with my Dad as a kid, always used to say, you will hear naughty words at the game being shouted, you’re not to repeat these, they are bad words. You know what, I actually listened at the time and never swore in front of my Dad until I was maybe 23 when I plucked up the courage to tell him to F off in a heated argument. That’s still the only time.

Not saying my Dad was the greatest parent, nor was I a model kid despite knowing rights from wrongs, even back then knew greens were good and junk food not good. 

Funny thing is, I was always super skinny back then, didn’t have the online gaming back then, was always out on bikes and kicking a football about being more active. Wasn’t until I got older and drank too much alcohol I gained weight and that’s come from the sociable side, not because I’ve been hammered with adverts on how great Peroni is. 

[BaaLocks]

If you're trying to stop kids eating junk food then you have to stop making it attractive to the parents and banning ads before 9pm won't do that. And parents don't buy their kids junk food because they want them to get fat, they do it because it's the easy option. Three reasons - the absolute minority reason is that some parents are too lazy or selfish to cook for their kids. Main reason today is that they either don't have the time or finances to cook 'proper' food. It takes time and money and for many in society we are not willing to give them either, becuase we want to squeeze an extra hour out of them in the workplace or because we collectively spread the myth that they will spend it al on fags and booze. Third reason is that they don't know how to cook decent, attractive food - it takes time and it is an effort, particularly to train the palate of younger children - just so much easier to put a bag of crisps in their hands.

The junk food companies are backed by the same lawyers, marketeers and lobbyists who supported the cigarette companies for years. But the government (of whatever colour) needs to understand the importance of health economics - the cost to our children's generation of diabetes, heart disease, infirmity and general poor health is going to be utterly crippling unless we embark on a programme of education and support for those who need it. As someone said famously, we are the first generation in history where the poor are fatter than the rich.

[Leeds Ram]

It's a complete myth to suggest cooking healthy food costs a lot of money it doesn't. My family often didn't have much money and sometimes were absolutely skint but my parents always ensured we had a healthy meal in us. The few times at university I have actually bothered to cook myself a decent healthy meal it's cost me about £1.50 a portion tops, I have a healthy appetite and don't skimp on the cheese for instance which a family struggling could do if they wanted to make it cheaper.  It's not even cost effective to give kids junk food either as it doesn't fill someone up for long (gets a quick hit of sugar, salt and fat then often you become hungry in a couple of hours) so then you have to either buy snacks that are expensive or buy more of the cheap frozen food anyway.  

On the time and preparation that's another consideration. It does take less time and effort yes to put something in the microwave or the oven but it hardly takes 3 hours to prepare an easy quick cheap healthy meal either. A lot of it is down to education I think, someone mentioned sure start centres being defunded and without doubt that's a big problem. Not only this but schools and colleges should be doing more to teach kids life skills in PSE and food tech should be considered like PE just something you do until you're 16. 

It's a radical idea but I wouldn't even be that averse to rationing certain products such as high sugar soft drinks, sweets and junk food quite honestly. 

Edited June 25, 2021 by Leeds Ram

[EtoileSportiveDeDerby]

The most difficult job in the world and there is no training. You just learn on the job, you'd hope to get more right than wrong but there are so many factors in play and adverts for instance are out of your control. Good move.

[Parsnip]

On 24/06/2021 at 10:30, David said:

But can somebody help me out here, what happened to parents being, you know, parents?

Educating their kids, ensuring their kids eat healthy and if they start to gain weight, put them on a diet.

A lot of us parents are quite pissed a lot of the time. Or just counting down the time till it's time to get pissed again. 

I just tend to put them on xbox and make sure there are babybels and squashums in the fridge. They seem fine.

[B4ev6is]

Well I know some money tight for some parents what wrong going for walks or get the kids into sport why shuff into rest of our faces if not bad enough with surger tax that put cost of living right up. Why cant freaking goverment keep there noses out. If not bad enough made every body lifes misable enough already. What wrong parents saying no to kids and make them understand that you mean it.

[1of4]

David in his OP said he hoped this issue wasn't political. Well it definitely is. And so to  comply with David's rules, I won't go into the social-economic impact that this and past ruling regimes have had on sections of our society.

[Boycie]

39 minutes ago, 1of4 said:

David in his OP said he hoped this issue wasn't political. Well it definitely is. And so to  comply with David's rules, I won't go into the social-economic impact that this and past ruling regimes have had on sections of our society.

Have it your way.

[Chester40]

I don't mind either way really. I don't think allowing kids to soak up the constant 'I'm Lovin It', or having Snoop sing catchy songs to advertise junk helps.. but it's definitely not the biggest problem. 

The fact is junk food is highly convenient, low cost and kids like it.

That is the issue! Its the much easier, cheaper and more popular choice. You can buy 3 ready meals for £5. Packed full of salt and drained of any goodness. Try cooking a mini lasagne, carbonara and sausage n mash all for £5! My kids bloody love them and have it as a treat. They also love 4 Wispas for £1, 4 donuts for £1.50 (8 for £2), 8 bags of crisps for £2 (16 for £2.50).

McDonald's is cheap compared to the proper freshly made sandwich shop on the High Street. 

It takes more effort, time and money to cook a healthy meal and a good chance at least one of your children is going to randomly decide they dislike it today. 

Only a massive sugar, snack, junk food tax, levied and then encouraged to subsidise fresh fruit and vegetables will have an effect.

As an eg my kids like strawberries(£2 a small punnet) and fresh meat costs double that of processed 'meat' foods or frozen meat. The healthy option needs to be the more enticing option somehow. 

The were asking me about how much chocolate bars costed yesterday when I was a kid. I said I guessed a Mars Bar was 25p. But then realised I can still get 4 for £1 at my supermarket! 

[TigerTedd]

Some points:

- getting rid of advertising aloe it’s the going to solve the problem, but it’s a small step in the right direction. Undoubtedly all the various actions against cigarette advertising have made a difference to the uptake of smoking, and ultimately the health costs on the NHS. So why not?

- I’ve not actually seen an advert on tele for ages. Everything is either streamed or recorded and I skip over the adverts. I actually miss the old jingles and things from when I was a kid. But I’m not even sure what people are talking about when they’re talking about junk food advertising. 

- what they could really do with us banning toy adverts. They’re the only ads I ever see when the kids are watching nick jr and stuff, and it’s a constant battle trying to explain to the kids that they can’t have every single product on every single advert they see. 

- somehow subsidising fruit would be a good thing. Maybe by taxing unhealthier food. As has been mentioned, junk food like crisps and stuff is all about convenience. I eat way too many crisps. Hungry? Grab a pack of crisps. We’re lucky that my wife was brought up in a country with plentiful fresh food and little snacks, and learned to cook at an early age. She cooks some great stuff. And our 11 year old daughter has been doing cooking lessons since she was 6 after school. I’m not so enlightened. I can cook, but it takes me hours, I just don’t have the time, so beans on toast it is 9 times out of 10. I always declare it’s kept me alive so far though, so their must be something good in it.

They love fruit and if I open a pack of raspberries they can go through them in one sitting. I’d be happy to fill my fridge with strawberries and raspberries. But they cost about £4 a box. Compared with stuffing the cupboards with crisps.