There is No Way for Inside Kids to Get Enough Exercise

I was a chubby kid.  Not enough to where it affected my health but enough to get teased here and there.  As early as the third grade I envied the skinny girls - and also my little brother who, to this day, has legs to die for.  

I am glad to say I am through the childhood taunting years and I am at the stage where I have kiddos of my own - five precious little ones.  One motherhood task I have found extremely difficult is combating the culture to start resume building for my children. It seems like the pressure to enroll kids in activity after activity is starting younger and younger.  There is an advertisement outside a soccer club near our house promoting sign-up for 18 month olds. The program has a catchy name - little kickers. But as cute as the name sounds some of my kids were hardly talking at that age - let alone ready for any sort of organized sports.

How do we navigate the waters of childhood opportunity and determine what to do with these fleeting years?  One way we've found is to determine family priorities. Near the top of our list, even above education, is health.  We have to weigh what the quality of life would be like for a college professor, astrophysicist, or financial algorithm programmer who is struggling with major health complications due to obesity?

Obesity is all over the news - especially the rise in childhood cases.  We live in Michigan which is usually somewhere in the top five fattest states so we hear about it all the more.  Of course I don't want my kids to develop insecurities or be teased because of weight - but much more importantly I want to give them the opportunity to live healthy adult lives.  Obesity in children is strongly linked to mortality and morbidity in adulthood.

So, let me cut to the bottom line.  Inside kids cannot possibly get the exercise they need.

Grade school girls need to take 12,000 steps each day and grade school boys need to take 15,000 steps each day just simply to maintain a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI).  ​This is equivalent to MILES of movement. ​

Grade school girls need to take 12,000 steps each day and grade school boys need to take 15,000 steps each day just simply to maintain a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI).  This is equivalent to MILES of movement.  At a nearby charter school, the grade school kids get one 15 minute recess break each day.  Shortening recess and cutting out recess almost altogether is becoming a common practice. Using a pedometer we have found that a 15 minute recess provides an average of 1100 steps - less than 10% of what is needed daily for a school-aged girl.  In fact, at a normal amount of child-like activity it usually takes our children around 5 HOURS of time outside to hit their appropriate numbers.  It's a considerable almost of time that children should be moving - and moving every day

 At the end of the day, how much movement our children get, comes back to the parent and what choices we make for our families on the days when the calendar is empty.  Do we choose to be inside people or outside people? Do we brave the heat or stay in the air conditioning? Do we spend our money on video games and cable tv or on zoo memberships and state park passes?  Do we occasionally let up on household chores so we can get in an extra bike ride with our kids? Do we tolerate the bugs or opt for the couch? Do we take a family hike or sit around a play card games? Surely there is benefit in balance but with the sharp rise in childhood obesity I would venture to say that the balance is very skewed toward inside time.

Understandably, simply going outside is not the answer if you just lay around in a hammock reading a book.  And there are certainly worthwhile things to do inside as well as ways to add movement to your life such as an exercise video or using a treadmill. The propensity to move more, however, is inherently there when there are wide open spaces to roam.  So, what's your first step to increasing family steps?  Start to schedule it in. One day. Two days. A few hours at a time and then increase from there.  Considering buy a pedometer and see where your kids stack up in terms of movement. If you are consistently low it might be time to ditch the resume building activities and simply opt for some good old fashioned time at a park!  Beyond health benefits heading outside this will teach our children children that they need to spend a good dose of time outside to balance sedentary inside time.

Join us on our journey to healthy families and healthy children.  Schedule in outside time. Invite friends along. And pass on the message!