Did you know that on average children spend five to six hours a day on media driven devices? As a parent it’s our job to supervise what our kids are doing. Childhood obesity is growing, its become something to worry about throughout the country.
Most of you know I have four children, the oldest being 14 and the youngest is 2. It gets a little crazy around the house, to say the least. There’s nothing that makes me more happy than my family, and knowing they are safe, happy, and healthy. It’s important to be sure everyone is feed healthy and being active. There’s so many risks involved with child obesity.
Being a parent it’s important that we’re part of our children’s lives, helping to promote a more healthy and active lifestyle. Sadly, it’s something my husband and I are fighting all the time. Being a mother and father of four children can be though, adding working full-time makes things even harder. Our children’s health is important to us. We’re currently battling with our 8-year-old, on the importance of eating healthy.
We’ve really had to change our lifestyle to prevent her from eating too much unhealthy food. We no longer buy chips, cokes, candy, or easy to make dinners. We’ve had to really step it up as parents with our 8-year-old. My other kido’s eat good, they love their fruits and vegetables, and don’t care for sweets too much. It just goes to show, it’s always better to start with good habits, than to have to try to forget bad habits.
What are things you’re doing to help motivate and promote a more healthy and active lifestyle.
If you would like to learn more about how to help your children get fit, check out “Kid Fit“. It’s a public service announcement that helps encourage kids to get 60 minutes of physical activity daily. It’s important, even if it means just heading outside and playing in the backyard. Studies have shows that kids and teens that are active reduce the risk of obesity, heart disease, and anxiety, as well as having a better mood in general. There’s an awesome FREE booklet you can check out as well called, “Fitness is Fun”.
What are some things you can do to help keep your child active? Here’s some tips that I use with my kido’s to get them off the couch, and outside.
Walks with the kids – There’s nothing better than taking a walk with your children. It’s not only good for everyone, but it helps you bond with your children. Walking is something we try to do daily. It’s hard in winter months, so we take advantage of weekends.
Walking home from school – The school isn’t too far from the house, and mom drops the kids off every morning. However, they walk home daily. It’s a nice 15 minutes from the school to the house, my two children walk together, and carry a phone. If you live in a town where you’re comfortable with this, it’s a great way to get your kids blood pumping without them realizing it.
Buy Healthy, Eat Healthy – If you buy healthy foods, it’s much more likely your children will eat healthy and learn good eating habits. This is something that I’ve learned is important to teach from the start. It’s always easier to teach good habits, than break bad ones.
Be a leader – It’s important for all parents to lead their children to a healthy lifestyle. Head outside with your children and join in the fun. You’ll be surprised how much fun you have releasing your inner child!
Get your children involved – Allow your children to help with cooking, cleaning, gardening, raking, anything you’re doing to be active. If you involve them it not only helps them be active, but helps parents bond with their children. I’m all about spending time with my children, regardless of what we’re doing.
Buy toys that promote a more active lifestyle – If you’re going to buy video games, get a bike as well. If your child would rather skateboard, or Rollerblade give them the option and support their likes. Video games are okay, but be sure they have other toys to make outside time more fun.
Have fun – We only have one chance to be mom and dad, so have fun doing it. Life is always more fun if we play. We’re adults, but we’re never too old for a game a basketball, or hide-n-go-seek with the kids. Let your inner child shine!
Being a parent is hard work, when you add holding down a full-time job to it things tend to get a little more difficult. However, it’s important to remember we really do influence our children, their health, and who they become. We can help control child obesity, and prevent our children from becoming obese at an early age. There’s so much risk involved in child obesity. Some of the risks involved in child obesity is:
- Cardiovascular Disease, High Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure
- Join Problems
- Sleep Apnea
- Social Issues
- Psychological Problems
- Poor Self-Esteem
- More likely to become obese adults
- Type 2 diabetes
- Different types of cancer
Help protect your children, anything we can do as parents to help our children become happy, healthy, young adults should be something we make top priority and take very serious. Being a child/teen is hard enough, much less being an obese child or teen. Children are supposed to enjoy being young, play, and be worry free. It’s hard if they are being made fun of daily for being overweight. It’s sad, but children are mean and the words can leave scares an on overweight child.
Be sure and check out the Will Rogers Institute’s PSA, and take advantage of the FREE booklet, “Fitness is Fun”. I think you’ll really enjoy the booklet its full of fun and engaging activities to help you and your children stay happy and healthy. It really helps show the importance of good nutrition and exercise for children.
What are some tips do you have to help other parents fight child obesity? There’s so many people looking for great ways to get their children off the couch, and outside. There’s no better way to learn how to fight child obesity than from other parents that have dealt, or are currently dealing with child obesity. So please take a moment and share! Help other parents fight child obesity!
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I totally agree with the idea that if you keep the food you want them to eat available and with easy access, the kids are more likely to eat it. I make sure the grapes are washed and I clip them into bunch and place them in a bowl, clean off all fresh fruit and in the case of apples, I not only make sure they are cut up, but I also have a little thing of peanut butter whipped up on the counter in case they feel the need to “dip” something. It may seem that this is “spoiling” the kids (or grand kids in my case), but the fact is, I also will be more likely to eat something that I can grab-and-go than if I have to do the work. If I do it all at one time, it makes snaking so much easier and healthier for all of us. A few minutes now means less time later I have to spend trying to get the weight off because I grabbed for the cookie instead of the grapes.
I totally agree, this is something we do in our home as well… we do lots of grapes, carrots, cucumbers, apples, etc…. I’ve never thought of peanut butter what an awesome idea, I may use that it’s like an extra little treat. I have one kid that would live in junk food if she could, which is what made us realize how important us changing things we did was… thanks for your comment, and I will be trying the peanut butter.