Thursday 22 July 2010

I Guess Donna Never Reads Much…

His mother Donna Pell, also 28, said Bailey was healthy and active and 'certainly didn't get fed McDonald's meals every day.'

The receptionist added: 'I was horrified by the letter. They asked for permission to weigh the children, but I thought they'd just give you the facts and figures.'
Did you, sweetie? Did you really?

11 comments:

Weekend Yachtsman said...

The mystery, to me, is why these wimpish parents pay the slightest attention to the wibblings of the Health Righteous.

If one of my children were the suject of such a letter, I would skim-read it once, snort, and throw it in the bin. End of story. Apart from possibly a small rant at dram-time that evening.

What is their problem, that they worry and start talking to the papers?

AntiCitizenOne said...

Becuase the state feels they own children, you'd have to opt-out...

So throwing the nanny state nag-notes in the bin would be counter-productive.

MTG said...

These children appear to be in excellent health - far more than can be said of the UK Judicial System from today.

Longrider said...

Why did they give their permission for the children to be weighed? Presumably they have learned a valuable lesson.

Anonymous said...

The legal system MTG, seems to me to have become an Undead - far more dangerous to liberty than a remedial patient.
What was that story on TV a few weeks ago about the wuckfit mother wheeling her 8 ton 5 year old about in a chair because walking made him tired?
Parents fearing their children will be whisked (or should that read winched?)away by social services for being fat should read up on the violent druggie cases where they are left to rot in place for spiritual guidance.

Jiks said...

Apart from anything else this BMI stuff is utter drivel. If you keep fit or have muscles for any other reason it will report you as obese, as I found in a work medical when I came back from a six week climbing expedition ...

It's just yet another example of lazy, target driven thinking. If those prodnoses were equiped with eyes they could clearly see those kids are not fat in any case ... don't they have ANY common sense?

English Viking said...

I have consumed vast quantities of beer, chips and gravy throughout my life, and it never did me any haa.a...aaaahhhhhhh!

blueknight said...

Years ago I ventured into the Health Education tent at our town show. Out of curiosity I volunteered to be weighed and measured and they calculated my BMI. Shock horror it was too high. But then I took a better look at the woman who was doing the calculations. Elephant legs, big butt and a bust like two aspirins on an ironing board. She looked as if she had been made from spare parts.
I didn't take it seriously after that

JuliaM said...

"The mystery, to me, is why these wimpish parents pay the slightest attention to the wibblings of the Health Righteous."

So many these days seem to be almost conditioned to fear and obey authority, no matter how many times authority turns out to be wrong.

"Why did they give their permission for the children to be weighed? Presumably they have learned a valuable lesson."

Let's hope so!

"Parents fearing their children will be whisked (or should that read winched?)away by social services for being fat should read up on the violent druggie cases where they are left to rot in place for spiritual guidance."

Indeed. It's the contrast that appals.

No one expects anyone to be perfect, just to make sense, to obey the rules of logic. Yet time after time, we see glaring discrepancies.

And slowly, and surely, the faith in 'the system' is whittled away.

"Apart from anything else this BMI stuff is utter drivel."

This has been pointed out time and time again. Yet it fits with the state's beed for a quick, easy-to-operate, 'tick box' system.

So they continue to use it, to the detriment of all other advice.

"But then I took a better look at the woman who was doing the calculations. Elephant legs, big butt and a bust like two aspirins on an ironing board. She looked as if she had been made from spare parts."

Heh! Definitely a case of 'physician, heal thyself'.. ;)

Squander Two said...

I've run into this one before. It stems from morons thinking that "normal" and "average" are synonyms. I've known plenty of parents who've had some health visitor or nurse tell them their kids are abnormal in some way, when they are in fact simply non-average — as almost everyone is. One health visitor straight-facedly told an acquaintance of ours that her daughter was too tall, and overweight.

To be fair, I don't blame the eejits who think that "average" means "normal" — the words are often interchanged when used non-technically. I blame the stupid bastards responsible for training them.

JuliaM said...

"I've run into this one before. It stems from morons thinking that "normal" and "average" are synonyms."

As you say, a training issue. But since this keeps coming up, and is not just needlessly worrying parents but casting doubt on other advice handed out by the NHS, isn't it time they addressed it?