Life Advice

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Health

Friend wants to intervene with overweight kids

By Amy Dickinson, Tribune Content Agency on

Dear Amy: My wife and I are on a friendly basis with a couple who have two children under the age of 10.

Both of these adults are seriously overweight. The mother has stated, in fact, that she knows she is a "big girl," which (of course) is her business.

The problem is that the bad eating habits of the parents are beginning to affect the children. Both of the youngsters are now also overweight, though not yet obese.

We are very close to the grandparents, who are trying to convince the overweight mom to be more careful when feeding the children, but their efforts have been in vain. The overweight mom tells them simply to mind their own business.

I'm inclined to tell the obese parents that they must help the children to keep their weight down. Such a remark will cause a major kerfuffle, but I don't care. What do you think?

-- Want to Intervene

 

Dear Want to: I think that stating the obvious to these parents will make you feel triumphant -- as if you have done something smart and necessary.

You know that this remark could cause a kerfuffle and interrupt your relationship with both the parents and grandparents. Yet you seem to operate under the assumption that your point of view is meaningful to this family, which, at least from where I sit, seems pretty arrogant.

So yes -- go for it. Let me know how things turn out.

Dear Amy: My fiance and I are planning a wedding in a few weeks. It is not our first wedding and we are including our children in the ceremony. We reserved a few tables at a local restaurant to have a happy hour with family and friends from out of town the night before the ceremony.

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