Killing them with kindness

Are Mom and Dad really the ultimate symbols of care and security in a child's life? Or do they stand for the love that only money can buy? W...

Are Mom and Dad really the ultimate symbols of care and security in a child8217;s life? Or do they stand for the love that only money can buy? Watch the television commercials and see how parental hugs and kisses have become mere accessories to material gifts that alone now connote tenderness and concern for the child. How tragically and blindly have parents given in to such brazen consumerism!

Outsmarted by slick marketing gimmicks, modern and well-educated parents have succumbed to the temptation of actually spoiling a child8217;s health in the name of love. Buying chocolate bars and toffees, candies and ice-creams have become a sure way to win a child8217;s heart! But at whose expense? That of the object of the so expressed affection.

Most parents must have heard ad nauseam from medical experts of how the sugar content in these goodies they should be called baddies are detrimental to a child8217;s physical and emotional growth, if they become a habit. But, all this is rapidly forgotten in the race to become theideal parent who is a market idol, who gives everything that a child wants.

Much fizz is added to a child8217;s by the cola wars, with the rival camps wooing kids with attractive prizes and tempting offers. Never mind the bane of aerated drinks, from which parents themselves might abstain particularly when they go on a slimming binge. Bottles are stored in refrigerators to remind the child that he has not been denied the good things of life.

Westernised ways of proclaiming parental love now include visits to the world of pizzas. No matter if the pizza is stuffed with everything that can buy ill-health. The major portion is a maida base 8212; that refined white flour which is universally declared as nutritionally unfit.

Parents drool over their children8217;s preferences for unwholesome food. It has become a la mode to state, 8220;My kids just hate vegetables8221; except spinach that has become fashionable thanks to cartoon character Popeye. Women wax eloquent during kitty parties about how their kids love outside foodand often order takeaways. They condescendingly term vegetables as ghas grass which their kids have come to loathe.

Pastries and cakes, again stuffed with white flour and sugar and dollops of cream, spell the ultimate in appeasing the child, whose heart the parents constantly endeavour to win through his stomach.

Story continues below this ad

Teaching and encouraging a bad lifestyle, which triggers off a host of physical and emotional ailments in early and later years, is now regarded an inescapable parental task. Pot-bellies and double chins, decayed teeth and sluggishness, irritability and emotional instability are not uncommon to find in urban kids.

The symptoms are not read aright, as the attempted remedies show. For pot-bellies and double chins, kid gymnasiums have sprouted; for the decayed teeth, we have superspecialised dentists; and, for irritability and emotional problems, psychological consultants are all the rage. Early warning by medical experts about regular and healthy eating habits are never considered seriously,since they hamper the modish way of manifesting love.

Totally abstaining from fashionable food, amid all this advertisement blitzkrieg, may not be practical. Moderation is, obviously, the key. But, frequently, too frequently, do we see children becoming chronic chocolate and soft-drink addicts.

It is a pathetic spectacle which only prompts us to look the other way for solutions. We pretend it is not the junk food that has done the harm and we take pride in our success as parents who have not let down their offspring materialistically at least. Talk of poor comfort.