Watch out for Wii Fit

My daughter Jessica turned 17 last week. I got her a laptop computer - too extravagant, I agree. She needs it for an AP class she is taking in her senior year. I figure if she passes the AP test then the money saved on tuition makes the computer well worth it. Anyway, her father rarely buys her birthday presents. This year, for some inexplicable reason, he bought Wii Fit as her birthday present even though it's not really for her, it's for the whole family. She told me she thought he was making a fat joke. I asked if she wanted the game, and she said yes, and I said then it's fine, right? Although I agreed it was insensitive. Not unusual for her father.
So she gets on the balance board to play the game, which then proceeds to tell her she is very nearly FAT. She texted me to tell me that. I wrote back saying if the &*$#% machine is going to tell her she's fat, it's probably going to tell someone like me to go ahead and put a bullet in my head. She said it was cool though because you can set goals for yourself and the machine monitors your progress. Great, I said. Fantastic.
Turns out the stupid game uses BMI index to decide whether people are fat. BMI works perfectly well for adults, or those that are full grown. For anyone who is not through with their development, BMI changes weekly if not monthly because the body is still developing. That means a teenager who is stocky today may be getting ready for a growth spurt which will even them out by next month. It's not a good idea to look at a still developing body, and make a determination about that child's overall health, except in extreme cases. This is another thing parents already know, and have to prepare for every year when we take our daughters to the pediatrician. The pediatrician puts their height and weight on a chart which can tell us at a glance whether we are very nearly fat. Only they call it overweight.
We parents work hard enough to convince our daughters that nothing is wrong with their bodies; that they are beautiful just the way they are; that the people they see on TV and in magazines are not reality; that their bodies are developing NORMALLY. So thanks, Wii, for that. Thanks for telling my daughter she is VERY NEARLY FAT. Thanks for confirming her fears that she is less than a person due to her belly, or legs, or whatever body part she is fixated on these days. By thank you, what I mean to say is FUCK YOU.
I'm not the only parent having a cow, man - you can read more here.
Fucking morons. I'm so pissed.