You truly cannot hold prior generations to the same standards as today. Nutrition science and  information on health was never as clear and ubiquitous as it is today. I assume you're the child of a baby boomer. If so, you were fed from the age of low fat frankenfoods. Microwave meals were new, fast food was still relatively novel. They just really didn't know. The health implications of a shitty diet were never so concrete as they are now. You still had grandmothers and grandfathers, who lived through the depression and world wars 1 and 2, who broke their backs in physically demanding jobs, raising 13 kids, who saw a bit of weight as an asset for the leanest of times, which they faced frequently, those people were still an active part of raising you and your parents. It wasn't till the damn 70s that it was made definitive that cigarettes caused cancer. The average person didnt have the internet until the late 90s, and the shit that was on it certainly wasn't general distribution health publications. Ditch the sadness and frustration, you managed to shed your weight and control your life before you met the same fate as your father, and although indulgent, he loved you, and that's a damn nice thing. -Signed another formally obese child of overindulgent parents