OK. About a post that I made. What do you all think

[Mom2torandis]

This is a post that I made in reply to a thread that someone else made about parents being held accountable for children being over weight.  In the thread the person went on to say that there should be laws against parents that smoke and parents who's children are over weight for any reason other then medical (conditions or medications that cause a child to be over weight).  Some people that have responded to the thread had mention that child that are over weight are abused.  As you can see by my response I think that is outrageous.  After i popsted my reponse I got a flood of what i would call 'hate messages" about 27 in all.  What I want to know is what you all think.  here is my post 

OK.  Now I am gonna sound off on this issues and I am going to apologize now if I run on FOREVER!
   I have 2 children, a girl who is 12 and a boy who is 6.  I buy what I know they WILL EAT!  My son is a solid 70 lbs and my daughter is about 100 lbs,both of my children are tall for their ages.  WITH THAT SAID, let me also add that both myself and my husband (and about 90% of the rest of our family) are SMOKERS! 
    My son is what you would call heavy for his height,  is it because I buy him chips, and little Debbie snack cakes or is it because I buy him fruit and yogurt? I buy both for my children (healthy and unhealthy) My son has NO medical condition for being a "BIG BOY" other then he is one.  Does that make me a horrible mom?  My son is the one I have trouble with when it comes to food, he eats from the time he gets up till the time he goes to bed because he is HUNGRY!  NOT because I want to shut him up, make him happy and keep him from crying.  We have tried to cut him back on how much he eats in a day and you know what happened?  HE GOT SICK!!!  Am I being a horrible abusive parent because I let him eat?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!   My kids DO NOTsit in the house in front of the TV, computer or video games all day.  They go outside and play, or to their Aunt's house to the pool.  We also take trips to the playground or to play with cousins and things of that nature.  My children are not mistreated or abused in any way shape or form. They do get out in the yard and play games with each other (baseball, football, bike riding ect..).  Now as far as smoking being an abusive act that is CRAP!  My parents both smoked and well as my husbands parents, and you know what WE ARE FINE!  All of my brothers and sisters are fine (I am the youngest of 10 BTW).  When I was pregnant with both my children my OB told me it would be OK for me to smoke in-fact he encouraged it in order to keep my blood pressure and stress levels down,  I did I smoked about half a pack a day with both kids and you know what THEY ARE FINE! 
   So whats next?  Parents that buy their children Gameboys and Playstaions should have their kids taken away and charged with Child Abuse?  GIVE ME A BREAK!  Come one PEOPLE!  How much more are we gonna take before we tell the government (both State and Federal)ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! People have raised children for hundreds of years with out government officials telling them what to do and how to do it. They all turned out just fine and 'back in the day' they didn't have kids involved in school shootings, sexually assault, drugs gangs, and what ever other problems plague our youth today.  In the state of Rhode Island in 2003 a 11 year old girl was removed from her home and placed in foster care because her MOTHER WOULD NOT BUY HER A NEW BIKE WHEN THEY WHERE AT THE STORE! And that mother spent 2 years fighting to get her child back. To me that is total and complete GARBAGE! Look around your state and see just what reasons people are losing their children and you will see that there is a SERIOUS problem with the child protection system in this country.  Instead of the people that are seriously abusing their kids losing them, people are having their children ripped from their homes for as little as, not buying them a cell phone or not letting them go to a school dance or taking away their tv and computer time for misbehavior.  Something seriously needs to change!   Being over weight or in a house with smokers is not abuse,  being beat with in an inch of your life and stuffed in a closet to die is ABUSE! Getting soda instead of juice is not abuse, being force fed Windex is ABUSE!  Being in the house while your parent(s) smoke is NOT ABUSE, being beat with a board or stabbed by your mother is ABUSE.  Being over fed is NOT ABUSE, not being fed at all is ABUSE! 
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY WHEN PEOPLE ARE MORE WORRIED ABOUT THE FACT THAT I SMOKE OR THE FACT THAT I GIVE MY KIDS JUNK FOOD AND SODA WHEN THE LADY ACROSS THE STREET FROM ME IS NOT FEEDING HER KIDS AT ALL OR BEATS THEM TO A POINT WHERE THEY ARE NEAR DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IMO...The person who wrote this post originally was both irresponsible and offensive.   My children eat what they want, when they want it, and they live in house with parents that smoke, AND I bet you dollars to donuts on any given day that my kids are 100% healthier then your kids are.  DON'T JUDGE ME ON HOW I RAISE MY CHILDREN! I CAN TELL YOU THIS... MY CHILDREN ARE HAPPY AND HEALTHY! 

[carmadsmom]

Jul. 26, 2007 at 11:30 PM I think that this goes back to people have their own opinions on things and no one can say what is really right or wrong.  Personally I don't smoke, but I do give my kids what others would call junkfood.  To me it is a treat for them not a constant thing and they are my kids and I do decide what to do.  Now as to go as far as saying someone's  kids are healthier than someone else's that is just asking for a fight so I think that that personal statement was not really a great thing because you don't know if your children are healthier than my kids or not.  I don't know what state of health your kids are in and you don't know what state of health my kids are in.  Plain and simple.  so yeah we really shouldn't judge people on their parenting styles and how they do things.

[degsyuna]

Jul. 27, 2007 at 10:58 AM I think that you made some good points.  Letting children eat junk food isn't abuse.  Kids are all going to be different sizes.  I've always been a lot bigger than my sister, and she usually ate more than me.  I also don't think that kids should be taken from their parents if the parents smoke around them.  I don't think parents should smoke around their kids, but I don't think it's abusive.  Especially compared to the a lot of abusive things I've heard about.