One off houseing causeing obesity in Children.

mariaalice · 21-02-2013 2:57pm #1

I have lived in two rural areas and two suburban areas, I currently reside in a housing estate in a medium size town.

In the estate I live in children play on the green running around, doing handstands, playing football and so on. A large proportion walk or cycle to school the secondary school is about a kilometre away, you also see children walking to activities such as music, I see children walking with their tin whistles or violin's.

By contrast in one of the rural areas I lived in every child was driven to school or got the school bus, friends has to be collected or drooped by car as they usually lived too far to walk or cycle to their friends house and even if they lived near enough to either school or friends the roads were too dangerous to cycle or walk on, no paths etc plus the fear of stranger danger meant parents would not let their children walk on a lonely road.

There for it appearers to me that children in rural areas by and large have far more sedentary life style than children in suburban areas and that might be a factor in increased obesity in Children in Ireland?

Valetta · 21-02-2013 3:02pm

In my opinion it's far more simple.

Computers and take aways.

maximoose · 21-02-2013 3:06pm

No, because there are plenty of little fatties living in urban areas too.

Anyone · 21-02-2013 3:08pm

Fúck me, I've heard it all now.

They are fat because they eat too much and eat too much shíte food.

Where To · 21-02-2013 3:08pm

Houses don't rear children.

Drakares · 21-02-2013 3:11pm

What is this fúcking nonsense. Cake, shít food, and lack of exercise causes obesity in children.

PS: the e's burn holes into my braineing.

Super-Rush · 21-02-2013 3:11pm

Are the children eating the houses?

Anyone · 21-02-2013 3:12pm

Super-Rush wrote: »

Are the children eating the houses?

Haha how fattening is pyrite? Sure, we can blame that as well.

Where To · 21-02-2013 3:13pm

I saw a documentary about that.

'Handsome and Dettol' I think it was.

pabloh999 · 21-02-2013 3:14pm

I would say the suburban lifestyle (driving everywhere)
is less healthy than an urban lifestyle (walking mostly everywhere) and using public transport.

mariaalice · 21-02-2013 3:15pm

Where To wrote: »

Houses don't rear children.

Thats very true, however the point I am making is that it appearers to me that it is easier in a suburban area to get children to be more active down to the fact that their friends are nearer and they don't have to be driven every where.

I grew up in a rural area and walked to school and walked every where else as well because I had to and because I was let. Today in the area I grew up in no one but no lets their children walk to school or to any activities as the road are narrow and can be isolated.

Ush1 · 21-02-2013 3:15pm

I have a rock that keeps tigers away. Do you see any tigers around?

mariaalice · 21-02-2013 3:18pm

Ush1 wrote: »

I have a rock that keeps tigers away. Do you see any tigers around?

I said it might be a factor ( just one factor and there are lots of other factors as well ) that could be in theory contributing to the problem.

21-02-2013 3:19pm

I grew up in the country, often walked or cycled to primary school only a mile away. Cycled to different friends houses every weekend, often a mile or two away. Played football in the front garden and most of all worked on the farm from an early age so was always running around and working.

A short stroll to school that a child in the city has is not the difference between a child being fat or not its much more to do with poor eating and lack of general exercise such as playing sport etc which is just as open to people from the city or country.

Most city people drop their kids to school too from what I see even those living very close, it makes more sense for parents to do it on their way to work and also its raining so often.

Rasheed · 21-02-2013 3:23pm

It depends on the food the child eats and level of activity, not where the child lives. Really don't know how you came to that conclusion.

1ZRed · 21-02-2013 3:24pm

What a lazy observation in fairness. For a start obesity is more influenced by diet, not area.

You'd be very mistaken for thinking rural children have a more sedentary lifestyle. If anything, there's more freedom and space to play and exercise in a rural area where it is safer to do so as apposed to a patch of grass in an estate.

Rural children also have a better attitude and understanding of food on to those in urban areas as they would have been more in contact with how it's grown, more and more able to identify healthy foods as a result. That fact is all important as an unhealthy attitude and understanding of food leads to obesity.

At a contrast, children in urban areas have more access to take aways and junk food, where mostly this is all within walking distance. There parents have a wider access to these takeaways so they feature more often in an urban child's diet more frequently than an urban one.
The areas are not as safe for them to play whenever they wish as apposed to a rule area, and space in generally limited, so as a result exercise is often limited.

I'm not from an urban area, and as a child in primary school I never had an obese or over weight classmate all throughout the years. In the classes below there was so few they could be counted on one hand. We had a great ethos of play and exercise as we'd the space and freedom to do it.
I'd always see urban school children with a higher rate of obesity than we did, both sides getting worse from even when I was a child which isn't even that long ago.

So as someone who isn't from an urban area, I'd have to completely disagree with you because it's just not the case.

OneArt · 21-02-2013 3:30pm

I lived in the middle of the freaking African bush when I was a child and I was never fat (no starvation jokes, Mother always hunted enough lions for us to eat). I always found something to do, even if it was chasing the Mozambique ambassador's chickens.

vitani · 21-02-2013 3:32pm

Some parents in one-off houses are more proactive about making sure their kids do team sports because they don't have the kids on the road to run around with.

I have a number of cousins living in one-off houses and they do a mix of horse riding, swimming, tennis, Irish dancing, hurling and more.

mariaalice · 21-02-2013 3:32pm

Rasheed wrote: »

It depends on the food the child eats and level of activity, not where the child lives. Really don't know how you came to that conclusion.

Its the level of activity I am talking about, if you live 5 kilometres from the nearer village/ town and the road are narrow and the area is isolated you will more that likely bring your child every where by car on the other hand if you live in an urban/ suburban area your child is possible more likely to walk to activities and to have more casual encounters with their friends in which they play.

Of course food is a big factor but that not what I am talking about.

starlings · 21-02-2013 3:32pm

mariaalice wrote: »

I said it might be a factor ( just one factor and there are lots of other factors as well ) that could be in theory contributing to the problem.

sedentary lifestyle is a contributing factor, just not confined to the suburbs.

Another factor you mentioned - fear of strangers preventing parents from letting their children walk to school and play outside - could be part of the reason these parents like to live in one-off housing as well as part of the reason for obesity.

I'd go so far as to say unthinking greed is the cause of obesity and one off housing, but people got angry enough already in response to your OP.

daveyeh · 21-02-2013 3:33pm

Noe waye onee offe houseing ies causeing obesitey

starlings · 21-02-2013 3:38pm

daveyeh wrote: »

Noe waye onee offe houseing ies causeing obesitey

Just read that in a Mexican accent.

Speedy Gonzales hasn't a pick on him.

Anyone · 21-02-2013 3:39pm

The cause of childhood obesity is the parents.
The parents who buy the crap food, who buy the fizzy drinks, who never tell their child "no", the parents who plonk them in front of a tv for 8 hours a day, the parents who wont go out with the children and play, who wont encourage their children to play outside because they believe their child is in danger.

Personally I feel that parents who bring up obese children should be brought up on child abuse charges.

wonderfulname · 21-02-2013 3:40pm

That's a bit of an ill considered opinion, I was a child in rural Ireland in the 90s, I cycled about 9km to school (each way), anyone else in the area at least cycled/walked 2km to the nearest bus. All the townies I went to school with just rolled out of bed into school, and they did exotic things like go to the cinema at weekends and such, we played on bales.

Am I going to claim one off housing made me fitter as a child? No.

You can't make concrete claims from personal observations.

Freddy Smelly · 21-02-2013 3:43pm

Where To wrote: »

Houses don't rear children.

my sister's house has a tiny house in my niece's bedroom... my niece put dolls in it

Rasheed · 21-02-2013 3:43pm

mariaalice wrote: »

Its the level of activity I am talking about, if you live 5 kilters from the nearer village/ town and the road are narrow and the area is isolated you will more that likely bring your child every where by car on the other hand if you live in an urban/ suburban area your child is possible more likely to walk to activities and to have more casual encounters with their friends in which they play.

Of course food is a big factor but that not what I am talking about.

In my experience, you'd be less likely to walk/ cycle in an urban area for fear of cars etc.

I wouldn't call 5 kilometres away from a town/ village isolated either. That's a healthy walk.

My best friend growing up, lived just outside a town on a main road. It was a manic road and the local children were never let out without supervision and had to play in tiny gardens. But when she came to mine, we had literally fields and fields to ourselves, quiet roads to walk and cycle to our hearts content, trees to climb, bales of hay to climb, forests to explore etc. As opposed to a housing estate, playing on a road, small gardens or just inside.

mariaalice · 21-02-2013 3:55pm

It depends on what rural area you grew up in, its just when I go back to where I grew up it is amazing that nowadays days no child is let walk or cycle to school the reason offered when I enquire is...its too dangerous/the roads are bad/its too ioslated..we had great craic walking to and from school when I was a child there would be a big gang of us.

Maybe its the suburban/small town I live in ( which in all fairness is very middle class/ has very good roads/ and is quite enough during the day ) I am struck by the amount of children walking to everything.

BrensBenz · 21-02-2013 4:02pm

Never mind calories, fast food, computer games, onee offe houseing, etc. During a recent illness, I had the opportunity to view TV Genius Jeremy Kyle and his daily contribution to humanity's quest for improvement. Having viewed a representative section of the programme's guests, I can now assure you all that the obesity goalposts were set in the wrong place and need to be moved......outwards.

Today's "normal" should have been "skinny fequer";
Today's "obese" should have been "sure you're grand";
Today's "morbidly obese" should have been "bubbly";

Problem solved! Thanks Jeremy. Now, can we have the "all-important lie detector / DNA results" please?

Kichote · 21-02-2013 4:03pm

Blame the house not the parents. In fact blame anything other than the parents

Parents also seem to think they have a 'right' to get extremely offended if they are given any legitimate critique on their parenting skills

flanders1979 · 21-02-2013 4:05pm

What a load of rubbish.
Its because they eat too much and exercise too little.
It doesn't help that parents think pedos obsessed with riding 200lb children are waiting around every corner.

osarusan · 21-02-2013 4:07pm

Is there even any evidence to suggest that children in rural locations are on average more overweight than children in urban locations?

One off houseing causeing obesity in Children.

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