“Honey, Not Only Are We Killing the Kids, But When Was the Last Time You Looked in the Mirror?”

Hats off to TLC for putting an embarrassingly human face on the obesity epidemic in America, starting with the kids. Rubbing the parent’s noses in it on TV will do the same for them as the “nanny” shows did for unruly child behavior on the network channels.

The Young family, the first chosen victims of this public nutritional chastisement, had a lot of changes to make: cutting down on sugar, incorporating fruits and vegetables into their diet, and removing TV from many rooms in the house. It was a shock to them to see how much improvement they made in their family life in just three weeks.

I immediately have two questions:

1. Did the family keep this new regimen up after the cameras were turned off and all those pesky TV people went home?

2. Did the parents bother to take a hard look at themselves, who are largely to blame for bringing such garbage into the house in the FIRST place?

Question one we will never know the answer to unless this show plans on doing a retrospective and follow-up. As for question two, part of the answer is “of course not.” Obviously, the mother in this first show had a serious obesity problem herself, judging by the fact that her neck was bigger around than my thigh. The father may have been overweight too, but it didn’t appear that way on camera.

As for TLC, I wonder when they’re going to get around to showing how we’re killing ourselves and our children by sodium overdose. Salt is just as much a danger to our health as sugar consumption is.

Mirrors play cruel tricks on us—that’s why we either ignore them, or have them strategically placed high enough on the wall for grooming purposes from the neck up. That way, we don’t have to face our physical disgust from head to toe, and learn what cruel tricks our brains have been playing on us this whole time.

Mrs. Young, I hope you get some help for yourself soon. If you don’t, you may be dead in a couple of years, leaving your house full of men without a wife and mother. All you need to do for starters is what you’re doing for the boys—changing food habits and limiting TV. If you add some walking to that food regimen, you will be doing enough to rescue yourself from the brink. Imagine those TLC crews showing YOU a shot of what you’d look like in 20 years without lifestyle changes, then with them—chances are good they couldn’t come up with a shot of you without the changes, because you’d be dead.

You may not be aware of what you look like, because I bet all the mirrors are too high for you to see it all. Keep eating right, keep walking, and have hubby lower those mirrors (or install new ones) so you can see the results as you shrink.

As the narrator in the show says, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Be a better tree for your apples, Mrs. Young, and all the other “Mrs. Youngs” out there. For years, you’ve given in to the kids’ demands, and used junk food, toys, and concessions to shut them up—now it’s time to take back control, of both behavior and diet. These kids are not going away any time soon, so you might as well learn to make them acceptable to you and society.

Stop covering up the root of this family problem with muumuus, turtleneck sweaters, and too-tall mirrors and get to work! Be an example of what can be done for yourself and your boys.