Shame on Shaq

Until tonight I’d never seen that TV show where Shaquille O’Neil works with overweight kids. I’m sorry now that I sat through the first two minutes, because it made me so angry I had to turn the TV off and leave the room. See, I remember being a chubby kid pressured to lose weight, scrutinized for every bite I put into my mouth, nagged at for not being slim.

The couple of minutes that I watched showed one of Shaq’s producers reviewing a tape of these kids. They’d all been instructed to work out over a 3-week period when Shaq was going to trust them and not insist on monitoring their exercise. None of the kids actually put out the effort he expected and, indeed, it looked as if most did not exercise at all. The camera closed in on one little boy, standing there with a clipboard listing the exercises expected of him. As the kid checked off the whole list without doing a single one, the producer’s voice over approached hysteria: “He lied! He lied!”

I turned it off just as Shaq was talking about how he was going to get tough with these kids now. “No more Mr. Nice Guy,” he said.

I can’t help wonder how if any of these producers were actually a chubby kid themselves. Do they have any idea how kids who already have negative body-images begin feeling hopeless, resentful and even more self-destructive when the one thing people focus on about them is their weight? They already know they’re different; they know they’re fat. What they don’t know is that they’re going to be loved and cared for, protected and cherished anyway.

Because they are kids. And kids learn those things from how they are treated by adults.

Shows like this infuriate me.

What’s the single biggest reason people over eat? For comfort — emotional eating, it’s called. Kids are no different.

Yes, there’s a problem with childhood obesity in America. There’s also a problem with kids being shuffled to before- and after-school care while their parents work, then to Grandma’s or a sitter’s on the weekends because their tired parents want time off. There’s a problem with kids being told to watch TV or play video games because it’s too dangerous for them to go outside, and there’s a problem with parents not having – or making – the time to take the kids outside when they can. Kids need the comfort of childhood, and adult lifestyles are too busy these days to give that to them.

Shame on Shaq. If he wants to make a difference in these kids lives, give them a chance to feel good about themselves without their weight being an issue. Give them someone to play with, someone to listen, someone to hang out and talk with. They won’t have time to be overeating if that’s going on. Most of all, they’ll get a message that they’re worthwhile and believing that about one’s self is the first step to deciding your future is worth slimming down for.