Fast Food Nation.

Having been a fat kid myself growing up, there's a decent chance I'm overreacting. However, I think my reaction to today's lunch excursion is valid. I think.

Today has been another typical day at work: i.e. lunch had to be quick because my dad had to get back to the store asap. So, we ran over to Wendy's. If you know me, you know I'm not a pro-fast foodie. However, I can usually find *something* that makes me still feel semi-human upon leaving the joint.

We sit down with our food and I look to my right to see a young girl, probably seven or eight years old. I couldn't help but notice that this kid is morbidly obese and miserable. You can see it in her face. She's sitting there by herself, eating from her AND her mother's food. I guess her mom was in the bathroom (for 10 minutes... makes you wonder...) and when she returned, her daughter had eaten all of both trays out of sheer boredom. Not kidding.

But instead of scolding her for eating both meals, the mother simply went back up there and ordered two more. TWO more. Huh?! So she takes the food back and tells the girl that she can only have the fries if she "promises to be a good girl for the rest of the afternoon." Bribing a kid with food when she CLEARLY needs to be shown love in other non-food ways. This little girl was so eager to make her mom proud of her too. You could see it. Sigh.

Society today makes me ill... for PLENTY of reasons but let's stick to the topic at hand. A grown woman promising her already sickly daughter MORE food to keep her behavior in tact is a big bad set up for years and years of self-destructive behavior. That poor little girl doesn't know any different... and I'm afraid she never will.

I guess part of this hits home for me because I vividly remember the summer before 4th grade and how attached I became to the refrigerator because I was bored. That's right, bored. I was a thin, average kid until then. And it took me roughly 16 years to work through all that emotional garbage to realize that I *should* take care of myself because I *deserve* it. I just hope someday that little girl realizes that she's worth it too - and a frosty to keep you quiet/content is just plain wrong.