Sue Palmer

“Tiredness thus draws whole families into the vicious circle of poor nutrition and lack of exercise. The sluggishness that comes from poor diet feeds further exhaustion, which leads to more quick-fix junk food and telly-slumping … and so on, ad infinitum. And all this overlaps with another vicious circle. This is the one where exhausted parents attempt wanly to convince their children it’s bedtime. And the children - over-tired and brattish - play up more and more, until their parents give up the unequal struggle and let them watch ‘one more programme’ or play ‘one more computer game’. The next morning everyone wakes up tired again … and on it goes, the two vicious circles overlapping into a vicious Venn diagram, with a worn-out family trapped in the middle.”
― Sue Palmer, Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our Children And What We Can Do About It