Critic Piece on The Telegraph's 'If your child is fat then you are a bad parent'

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11985974/If-your-child-is-fat-then-you-are-a-bad-parent.html

 

Dear Ms. Brewer,

I recently came upon your article, ‘If your child is fat then you are a bad parent.’ I am writing to outline major flaws in your writing, including your tone, false accusations and the impractical solution you give to solve this problem. It is hard to be believe such a biased piece was published on the well known THE TELEGRAPH.

Firstly, you claim that, ‘parents are 100 per cent to blame,’ for raising an overweight child, which is incorrect. It is often that natural problems such as: genetic disorders, puberty and normal hormone imbalances can be the root of obesity in children. These causes are out of parent’s control; hence they cannot be blamed for it.

Further on, parents do not tend to ‘force feed,’ their children. It is not sensible to think anyone can be forced fed beyond their capacity unless parents shove food down their children’s throats, which stands to be a very unlikely scenario. I do not believe a parent can follow their children to school just to make sure they eat healthy with all the junk sold in school cafeterias as well. Plus, we cannot take sugary sweets out of a child’s life completely. If so, kids cannot be stopped and are likely to over eat behind the parents backs, without their knowledge.

Next, your approach to, ‘Send more fat letters! Put it in black and white and send it to them every month, every week or even every day,’ is quite pathetic as you yourself believe that, ‘letters are only failing to do their job.’ Your contradicting statements show your confusion on the topic.

Moreover, you have spent more time complaining over parents instead of providing a valid method or solution to this problem, you state, ‘parents also need to be provided with support,’ but do not mention any further information on what this ‘support,’ is to be. Neither, have you written about anyway to achieve this? This further proves your lack of interest on working to improve this issue.

Mrs. Brewer, your inappropriate comments on your target audience can cause them to take unethical decisions like starving their children. Calling them ‘child abusers,’ and ‘selfish and lazy,’ can stir a negative vibe in households as parents can feel ashamed of being the cause of their children’s unhealthy shape-which I proved is not always their fault. Kids will lose their self of esteem and feel insecure as parents may remind them of your words stating they look, ‘like sumo wrestlers – and they are getting fatter by the day.’

Lastly, your exaggerated view on parents being the darkness in this situation, without any reasonable evidence makes your platform untrustworthy. Your sarcastic tone and the use of puns while writing, ‘And, boy, will that be a lot of letters,’ indicating to ‘obesity epidemic,’ along with similes, ‘like sumo wrestlers,’ to create a joke about such a sensitive topic in a harsh light. Without pity or shame, your purpose to destroy any hope for an obese child seems more evident and shadows your work.

To conclude, I hope this letter has educated you of your flaws and has inclined you to fix them. There is enough negativity in the world and such an article does not benefit the society we are living in. Personally, I reason that you could have written a better informative article if you researched your chosen topic in more depth.

Sincerely,

Reader.