Strollers... leading to childhood obesity?

So, my title is a bit extreme... okay, it's very extreme. But I got your attention, right? Just the other day, Baby Boy (BB as my sister now calls him) and I went for a walk to the park, then through part of the zoo and the conservatory. It was a beautiful day. Shouts and laughter of children who had taken to the jungle gyms and swings could be heard from blocks away. Across the street you could hear kids say, "Look! A bear!" and "The seals! They're dancing!" while running around, pulling their big people from place to place. But what caught my eye was not the parents rolling their eyes as their children dragged them around the park, but it was the parents/caregiver who was pushing their child around the park. Now, typically this wouldn't cause me to raise an eyebrow (who hasn't seen a child in a stroller?), but it was the size/age of the child that was being pushed around in these strollers that caught my eye. Children, who looked to be around the age of 5-9, were being pushed in strollers! It got me thinking... what are we teaching children if we are willing to push them around when they are very capable of walking themselves? Ironically, when I logged into TODAY online, the top story for Parenting was "Too big for strollers, or too judgy about parents?"



First, I would like to point out that 'judgy' is not a word. Second, this is a great topic. The article on TODAY was addressing a website that posts pictures of parents pushing their too-old children in strollers, blurring out the child's face with a circle and the word 'WALK'. TODAY reports that the act of this blogger is judgmental, even though she denies this accusation stating that she finds it humorous that parents do this. Despite what they say, I am judging, sort of. However, it's not the parents choosing to push their child that I'm judging, because who really knows why they're pushing their too-big-for-the-stroller child in the stroller (as the article points out), but I'm more judging the outcome: What are we teaching children when they do complain or are 'too tired' or just don't want to go? Could we, as parents and caretakers, be relying on the 'easy' too much? Are we allowing children to adopt lazy habits, in turn encouraging them to be more lazy in life, resulting in what has now become a significant problem for 1 in 3 children, obesity? This is a stretch, I know, because I fully understand that there isn't just one factor to childhood obesity, that it is affected by diet, genetics and exercise. What I am saying is that as adults we are role models and must maintain and encourage good habits for ourselves and children if we want them to succeed and be healthy. What I'd like to purpose is this question. What are we encouraging our children to do that might lead to bad habits in the future, and how can we make changes to better the outcome?