”Jag är inte diktator – jag är också mamma”: Om föräldrastöd och föräldraansvar kring barns fetma och översikt

Abstract

Childhood obesity is an increasing and much debated health issue in Sweden and in other Western nations. Public health interventions directed to parents to prevent the increasing overweight and obesity in early childhood underline the importance of parent’s impact on children’s eating habits and physical exercise. Advice given to parents stresses the importance of setting limits, to encourage the child to a right direction and behaviour and to function as a role-model. Based on interviews with
Swedish parents of children labeled as obese between 8–12 years of age, parents’ narratives of everyday practices for children’s diet and eating habits are analysed. The findings show how parents try to balance their attention to the overweight because of fear for exposing the child for negative attention. Parents also try to balance their attention in respect to parent-child relationships. The study indicates that parents try to follow the advice given, but seen from a perspective of “ethics-of care” parents also attempt to consider essential relational aspects in everyday life.