Comments on: Shame on Shaq

By: astrid evans

astrid evans — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:17:58 +0000

What really sickened me was how much Shaq had to struggle to get the school to agree to Allow!!! the kids 10 min of exercise, and all the resistance to putting healthy foods into the cafeteria. I understand taxes are high and school budgets are tight, but isn’t it worth it to spend a few pennies more per meal to provide foods that will help kids grow healthy bodies and nourish their brains for better perfomance in class? And if our kids are healthier, then medical costs will decrease as well.

By: Chubby Mommy

Chubby Mommy — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:26:45 +0000

What flipped me out was after the kids took their beating from the stars, then the parents started in on them.

I’d wondered how Shaq was going to deal with the parents about the whole thing about the kids not going to the gym. They’re kids, duh. To get to the gym means the parents have to take them.

Why blame the kids if they’re not going? Why embarrass and humiliate children further when their own parents sabotage their efforts?

Meanwhile, I got an email from a reader who says that one kid had to be carted out of the gym in an ambulance???!

Either that kid was physically overworked — a dangerous condition — or so mentally distressed that it caused a collapse. Either way is damn near unforgivable.

By: Chelle

Chelle — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 13:37:40 +0000

Things like this make me ill. Whatever happened to just simply encouraging a child to eat whole foods and buying them a bike or actually going out the door with the child and going for a walk with them?
Personally, I never struggled with weight until I was senior in HS. But in the last two years we’ve been watching Bonus-Boy gain weight at an alarming rate. His bio-mom would rather he stay inside than have to use allergy and asthma medications so every-other week he’s a couch potato eating nothing but junk food all day long and the opposite weeks he’s healthy, eats healthy and is active. What frightens me about this cycle is that in one month he gains 5-8 lbs one week and then drops 5-8lbs the next. At age 9 he’s far too young to be going through a gain and loose cycle, especially when his base weight is 82 lbs and it’s all in his chest.
As wichi dude said, none of the parents were svelte on that show which makes one wonder just what kind of examples of healthy eating these children see at home. Home is where it starts. Monkey see, monkey do. Breaks my heart.

By: Wichi Dude

Wichi Dude — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:47:22 +0000

Caught a little more of the show than you did (but not by too much, I had to move on). After Shaq tore the kids a new one, he turned his trainer “Doc” loose on them. “Doc” in turn turned another trainer loose on them. This guy was a total jerk.
What flipped me out was after the kids took their beating from the stars, then the parents started in on them. And none of the parents could be called svelte by any stretch of the imagination.
I found it insulting and demeaning to the kids and to my intelligence.
Even Jerky Springer and Pricky Lake provide entertainment while insulting me. Not so much Shaq.

By: jon

jon — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:29:55 +0000

You can expect nothing less from the reality tv culture. it’s aim is to humiliate participants at every turn!

By: Jesse

Jesse — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 07:42:18 +0000

The oh so sad irony in this ill-conceived program is that Shaquille O’Neal has struggled to keep his weight down during every NBA off season since 2002. When he was traded to the Miami Heat then Heat GM Pat Riley had a weight clause added to Shaq’s contract due to O’Neal’s habit of showing up for training camp extremely overweight. In fact, Shaq got so heavy that many of his nagging injuries over the years to his knees, toes, and ankles have been attributed to his lack of conditioning and excess elbees. Shaq is flat out lazy, so I find it very amusing that he would be the host/star of a show that promoted physical fitness and healthy eating…I mean, Shaq’s fat lady in a sundress arms should have tipped the producers off that maybe they pegged the wrong wagon to pin their star to.

By: aylee

aylee — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 03:26:28 +0000

I agree. I think the first and important thing to do is make these kids feel better about themselves, and not make it worse by telling them they need to do rigorous exercises to be better people. They need encouragement, not bootcamp.

By: Good Enough Mom

Good Enough Mom — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Chubby Mommy, I was intrigued. For one, the name just rocks. But the blog is focused on health and wellness, weight, body image… the issues real women struggle with. She’s a fantastic writer, but her postcalling out Shaqon his ridiculous television endeavor to “help” overweight kids expresses my feelings better than I probably could. I was irate when I saw the first television promo for it and my sentiment hasn’

By: Electric Venom

Electric Venom — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

myself to watch it. Call me close-minded if you will, but I refuse to support reality TV shows that turn childhood struggles into entertainment fodder for other folks. I don’t watch any of those Nanny-style shows for the same reason, and only caughta few minutesof Shaq’s show about fat kids by accident. That brief glimpse was enough to infuriate me, and I vowed to never watch anything like it again. Oh, but I’ve heard plenty about it. It’s hard not to: