“Boxer MIKE TYSON’s teenage daughter has taken her mother to task on US TV after complaining about her extreme methods to keep the 15-year-old’s weight down. MIKEY TYSON has been fighting obesity issues for years and has now gone public with her battle against her mum, KIMBERLY SCARBOROUGH. The teenager reveals her mother put locks on kitchen doors and alarmed refrigerators in a desperate attempt to stop her overweight daughter from snacking.”
When I read this my heart sank low. I could never imagine putting a lock or an alarm on a refrigerator to stop one of my children from eating. This in my opinion is a clear case of abuse by the mother. Later it was revealed that the US television show that daughter took mother to task on was the Tyra Banks Show, it showed that there are a lot of emotional and psychological scars in place between mother and daughter and the child’s weight is at the center of the abuse.
As a fat person a teen has to go through enough abuse from kids at school and other places. Parents should be there for there children not add to the abuse that they endure on a daily basis when they take on the world. I know from my own teens that no teen is going to run to there parents for the most part to talk about any issue let alone talk about there size. A teen is vain enough by nature and lets face it parents are not cool. Add name calling to the mix and soon a once vibrant outgoing teen becomes one that is quiet and reclusive.
Society says that its ok to make fun of fat people so in some cases even parents do it under the guise of “tough love” or if I embarrass my child then that will turn the behavior, them being fat, around. This type of abusive thinking by parents only digs a hole that most teens will not climb out of and turn food into a weapon against the wishes of the parent. If my mother did something like that then I could very easily see myself over eating just to spite her.
A parents job is it nurture and guide there children until such a time they are mature enough to handle life on there own. Bashing a child over the head with the dinner plate or locks on cabinets not only sends the wrong message, but will drive the child away. Home is supposed to be a safe haven. There is nothing comforting to a teenager to come home from the world abusing the “fat kid” to get the same treatment from those that say they love them.
