Giselle De La Cruz
English 101
Dr. C. Jason Smith
10 December 2013
Topic
B
A child doesn't really pay attention to everything that they do, according to psychology they
are certain stages in a child’s development that show that the adult bears the responsibility
of the child’s well-being. An adult is the voice of guidance for the child in
everything he/she does regarding their life. Schools using fast foods in their
cafeteria is one thing, but the parent allows this, it’s an issue. If the adult
doesn’t want their child to eat fast food, all they have to do is pack a lunch.
As the child’s parent, it’s their responsibility ; but it is equally the responsibility
of the fast food chain restaurants.
As a child I
was never really given choices on my diet, it was either eat it, or starve
later and still have to eat the same food. Regardless, she controlled
everything I ate, except for candy, I snuck that. Being in a school was a
completely different environment for me, my mother was not in there to control
what I ate, the school gave me anything that was there. If I didn't want to eat
school food all I had to do was tell my mother, and she would pack a sandwich
for me or something. I grew up believing that it’s the adult’s responsibility
to control, or educate their child’s diet.
Different
activities can help your child learn healthy eating habits, like maybe playing
a vegetable recognition game, or creating a day where the adult and child go
shopping together, and have a fun healthy food shopping day. There are certain
schools that allow the parent to give in a list of preferred foods for the
child, kind of like allergy food list. These schools usually are hard to find
though, and don’t really openly ask parents’ for a food list. One thing though
is that just like it is the parent’s responsibility to ensure their child gains
healthy eating habits, it is also the responsibility of the person who is
feeding them.
Many fast
food chains wisely direct their advertising towards children, knowing how they
will react. Many cool commercials come on, showing toys, games and cool things.
Fast food restaurants know exactly how unhealthy their food is, but continue
targeting children, causing an increasing amount of obesity in children. If
fast food chains stop directing children to their restaurants, obesity could
most likely decrease. At the same time though, a lot of these fast food
restaurants have been around for years, so it may still be useless. Adults now
raise their children on fast food, as I've personally seen it around me. One of
my closest friends only lives off of chicken nuggets because as a child he was
only fed McDonalds chicken nuggets. In the society we live in now, we live off
of fast food. Especially in New York City where everything is fast paced. One
of the few things that is affordable for everyone is McDonalds, so of course an
adult might end up raising their child around only fast food.
So it may be
the adults responsibility to take care of their child, but it is also society’s
responsibility to ensure the safety, and health of our future generations. We've become a society living off of fast food, ignoring the fact that our children
may never know, or know too late that what they ingest may be harmful to them
later on in life. The decision to eat what we eat ultimately comes from the
adults around us, but the influence and push of fast food and obesity comes
from the fast food restaurants.
