Humans are innately very active creatures. To display this tendency towards activity, all you need to do is watch infants or young children. Infants love to fidget, toddlers crawl and explore and children can't sit still for very long! But slowly as we age, our days become more and more inactive. How does this transformation into a sedentary lifestyle occur? If you examine our actions as parents and as a society, you'll soon figure out why 80-85% of our population doesn't move as much as we should!
Where did things go wrong?
Baby chairs, baby swings, door gates, play-pens, fences, and car-seats all act to restrict our children's activity levels. If we let children roam free, you'd notice they would naturally tend towards movement. Many of these restrictions are necessary for our children's safety, however, most are just a convenience. How many times as parents do we ask our children 'Please, just sit still!!'? And how often do we reward them for good behavior when they do?!
Don't we all admire parents whose children are so quiet and well-behaved and don't run around screaming and getting into everything?!
Our educational system asks our children to sit for hours without moving! The age of video games, computers and TV has further tempted our children towards inactivity. Our society, in general, has made life so easy that we hardly need to move at all (escalators, moving walk-ways, remote controls, food delivery services, elevators, electronic lawn-mowers...). So by the time our children reach adolescence, inactivity is natural and expected!
What can we do about it?
The first step is to be conscious of our words and actions. Let your children be as free to move as possible without sacrificing safety. Limit TV, video games and computer time. Schedule a meeting with your children's teacher and principle to discuss their philosophy regarding movement and to ensure your child isn't forced to sit for hours. Exercise with your children. Be sure that, as a family, movement is accepted, encouraged and rewarded! Teach children to be more active! It's only natural! |
