According to a survey anyway, not great reading

British parents are more physically active than their children

I buck the trend, my kids do more sport than me and are a lot fitter.

Mmmmm i’d go along with that… My lad, kinda…. but it’s debatable…

Not a chance. My eldest can jump up and down on a sofa for 24hrs straight. I struggle to get up the stairs at the moment.

For the population at large, I suspect there isn’t much in it…

Parents driving everywhere, including ~0.5 miles down the road for “school run ”

Kids glued to their mobiles instead of playing football etc.

My kids do more than me, but not 100% certain they would given half an opportunity.
I’m always keen to express the enjoyment side of being active to my kids, but still think they’d rather sit in their bedrooms on their phones chatting to their friends while playing computer games.

Much more active than my kids. It is a rare day I dont run/long walk/Cycle, and often more than 1. Sunday was a non sport day and walked 17 miles with the dog.

It’s not just UK.

That said, I can show you streets in Glasgow where to live at one end means 7 years less life expectancy, lower quality of health and more. Mainly related to poverty and social issues leading to poor lifestyle, poor diet, poor activity levels and generally a sh*t start in life.

It saddens me how many parents are worried about letting their kids out the door. It’s almost as if we’ve reached a point where you’ll be judged as a bad parent if you do… Kids glued to digital screens all day long. Completely different world to when we were kicked out the house at 10am and shouted back in at teatime.

My kids are active (we all are), but as w00dster says it’s not always their 1st choice 🙂

I’m a bit of an Xbox/tablet Nazi, they get a bit of time to do that as long as it’s balanced with active pursuits too.  Unfortunately the downside of that is that there’s currently only 2 days a week where at least one of them isn’t doing something 🙂

I’m active by choice, try to ride to work as often as possible and get a grump on if it’s been more than a day or 2 since I last exercised or at least got out of the house/office.

Very much the case with my lad, unfortunately – it’s not exercise as such as he’s reasonably happy to get involved with hiking, bike rides with me etc, plays football. It’s more a non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) thing with him. Just an immovable boulder of a person who sticks to the couch like a limpet.

I’m exactly the same though so it’s hard for me to be too critical. Off the bike I don’t move much.

It holds true in our household. I do 24hr races, MiniH can barely walk the length of the park in one go.
He can’t talk yet either, or control his bladder, or feed himself.Possibly not the best comparison, an 18month old.

My daughter is fairly active for 3yo.

My son doesn’t do anything though, sleeps most of the day, he is only 4 months old though.

My son (5) is like a border collie. Just never stops moving and thinks sleep is an affliction his parents suffer with. Daughter (just turned 2) is the same. Constantly climbing, kamikaze jumping off the sofa etc. I sometimes envy friends with kids who’ll sit and play.

I used to be very active. Nowadays between work commitments and family stuff I do very little. Walk a couple of miles to work and back each day 😕

Daughter (17) plays netball 3 times a week 1 of those at a high level, and is a gym member lad (14) rides to school every day and is otherwise permanently on his bike, I’ve not ridden for 6 weeks 🙄

When time permits I’ll be out running/biking 3 times a week. Rarely does that happen for longer than 10 weeks though as life is so insanely full on. Sadly this often means periods of similar length with little to no exercise. Makes me a very grumpy ape.

9 yr old Monkey jnr OTOH does a mix of football, martial arts, tennis, cross country and even the odd short ride with me in tow. Occasionally he moans about going to a session but he ALWAYS enjoys it. Unfortunately he doesn’t get to play out in the wilds like me and thee did years ago so most of his exercise is kind of prescribed.

The irony of my answer is I don’t have time to do as much exercise as I used to because I spend 2 evenings a week and both Saturday and Sunday mornings driving them to, and sitting on the sidelines while they play various sports.

The hard bit is keeping a pre-teen girl active*, especially when their peers are lazy bastards, very few of my daughters friends do any kind of exercise, PE was the first thing dropped at primary school too when they had a lack of teachers or any other issue.

All I can do is keep encouraging her to come to park run with us, cycle and keep her swimming going, plant the seed and hope it grows once she grows up a bit.

It was a lot easier when she was younger, she just went with the flow.

*She is pretty fit as well, will happily come hill walking with us, does cross country for the school, will happily rattle out a mile in the local pool etc, but if we were as lazy as her pals parents, she wouldn’t do any of that.

Edit –

The irony of my answer is I don’t have time to do as much exercise as I used to because I spend 2 evenings a week and both Saturday and Sunday mornings driving them to, and sitting on the sidelines while they play various sports.

I go for a 5k run while my daughter is at her piano lesson, when she’s swimming I’m in the adjoining gym.

Agreed nobeer, I have recently started to run while they have swimming coaching. A long running back issue means I’ve only been able to do it this year though. I used to go for a long walk.

For rugby, parents need to be pitchside, it is also nice to see them play.

I’m far more active that my wife. But our kids are quite active with school clubs and various activities. So I’m more active than them, but they’re more active than my wife

It saddens me how many parents are worried about letting their kids out the door. It’s almost as if we’ve reached a point where you’ll be judged as a bad parent if you do… Kids glued to digital screens all day long. Completely different world to when we were kicked out the house at 10am and shouted back in at teatime.

I don’t even know where to start ….
We have had decades now of an obsession with protecting everyone to the point it seems like the ultimate victims are everyone. Teachers that were taught by teachers who were all sorts of averse… and never attended the school, of hard knocks….

school, of hard knocks….

Followed by the university of life, and a wee Brexit facebook group? 🙂

Seriously, we can protect kids without stopping them exercising, it’s 2 totally different things.

I can believe this. One of the reasons why we are resisting a move back from Australia to the UK. My eight year old has a pretty standard schedule: Monday hip hop, Tuesday sprints training, Wednesday school cycling, Thursday sprints training, Saturday (winter) hockey, Sunday (summer) surf club. So that’s five times a week before we do anything extra, same as both my wife and I. That’s pretty average for where we live. The good weather does help!

Followed by the university of life, and a wee Brexit facebook group?

Seriously, we can protect kids without stopping them exercising, it’s 2 totally different things.

It is and isn’t …. the way I see it is that the two have been conflated.
What was perfectly normal in my childhood (out playing with my mates) is now tantamount to neglect.

It’s a whole culture of PC … and regulation…

*She is pretty fit as well, will happily come hill walking with us, does cross country for the school, will happily rattle out a mile in the local pool etc, but if we were as lazy as her pals parents, she wouldn’t do any of that.

Nober, that’s a perfect example …
I did all of that by myself or with mates pre-teen.
Walked/ran to the pool… walked and ran the hills… we just got on and did it… 15p from mum for the pool and 7p for the crisps after then walk home from the pool… etc.

Actually it wouldn’t surprise me if my dad was more physically active than me when I was a kid. Maybe he was the exception though, walking the dog every morning (a proper strenuous half hour walk as well, not a daunder along the pavement) then doing a 15 mile there-and-back cycle commute every working day, plus a half day’s gardening for a local retiree every Saturday.

I lived in a wee West Coast Scotland village, so in the summer the opportunities were there for lots of helfy activities, 1 vs 1 football matches consisting of hoofing the ball the length of the pitch then both charging after it, jumping off rocks into the sea and then fighting off the incipient hypothermia, plus all sorts of riding and trail building. But outwith the summer? (e.g. October-April)? Once a week swimming lesson, once a week badminton club, the remaining hours spent on computer looking for porn or learning to code HTML.

but they’re more active than my wife

My wife is like some sort of big, sexy cat. Ruthlessly efficient when she is required to work (or pick up after me and 2 year old mini-monk) but rest of time sleeping or stretching out on couch. Seems to work for her, she certainly spends a lot less time out injured than I do! In fairness she is now trying her hand at yoga and pilates, probably after seeing me spending 4 months on floor with herniated disc.

Mini-monk is just a 3 foot high shouting, screaming blur (how can someone with such a comical run move so fast?!) around the house, doesn’t slow down until approx 1 minute before bedtime.

Walked/ran to the pool… walked and ran the hills… we just got on and did it… 15p from mum for the pool and 7p for the crisps after then walk home from the pool… etc.

That’s fine if you live in the city or suburbs. We are 9 miles form the closest rugby club, 12 odd from a pool, 6 miles from the cricket club. Anywhere we/they can walk or cycle to we do but sports clubs are all a drive away.

Interesting one this. I’ve got two kids.

Kid1 is ten – if being immobile was a sport she could play for Wales. She runs about a bit when playing, and she likes a bike ride and such – but the difference is that between those things she just sits about, doesn’t run anywhere or bounce around like kids do, and she never has. We’ll go out and do something and then when we get back she’ll sit playing games, reading or literally doing nothing for hours. Her energy expenditure outside of planned activities is extremely low.

Kid2 on the other hand is 8 and she’s always moving – bouncing up and down, running around, wandering about the place during mealtimes (grr). When they play outside she’ll be running all over the place, and Kid1 is doing whatever role in the game that requires standing still. Kid2 would be good at sports probably but she’s so utterly anti-competitive that she won’t partake in any, she just doesn’t want to. When she’s older I can imagine her running or cycling, but otherwise she doesn’t want to join in. Which means both of them are crap at anything requiring body skills like football, tennis etc as they aren’t constantly doing it like some kids are.

So there’s only so much you can do as a parent. Riding is just about the only firm hit but because of where we live that means driving to a trail that is interesting enough for them to enjoy but not too steep for them to complete.

Kid1 gets her inertia from her mum – she is just that way inclined. Kid2 gets her anti-competitiveness from her mum too. There’s only so much you can do as a parent. We limit their screen time, but even then Kid1 will just do other inside static activities anyway. When she’s old enough to do big stuff like climbing mountains and bikepacking etc she might well do, but not now.

My wife is like some sort of big, sexy cat

I am adding this to my book of compliments to use on ladies.

‘Awrite, ya big sexy cat’ would be a killer chat line, but has to be in an Edimbourg accent, kinda Spud from TS style.

I should have said, my kid could equally sit for 24 hours watching iPad without moving if given the chance…

hooli

That’s fine if you live in the city or suburbs. We are 9 miles form the closest rugby club, 12 odd from a pool, 6 miles from the cricket club. Anywhere we/they can walk or cycle to we do but sports clubs are all a drive away.

By the time I was “pre-teens” I was doing stuff in the next town or towns not dis-similar distances away. Football was to quote the cliche “jumpers for goalposts”…. but in general I just met my mates and we walked or ran (or some mates cycled) or we’d run to a place with a bus stop to places.

Very little if any was organised clubs until later.
Summer hols etc. I’d barely be home… and let myself in to make food or walk 4-5 miles to my gran.

Dunno how old you are but this was normal in the 70’s…. when we read the Railway children or Enid Blighton all that stuff seemed perfectly normal)

I seem to remember spending most of my childhood either riding bikes around the neighbourhood or digging holes in the garden. We were always outside doing something…..

Misread the title as “attractive”, thought it was some pro-MILF/anti-paedo thread…

Steve, don’t get me wrong we did the same and my kids do plenty of playing football in the park, riding bikes in the woods and stuff like that but they still belong to clubs and these clubs are all a drive away.

Even if the bus from our village was better (it runs 5 times a day on weekdays, less on the weekend), it doesn’t go near the cricket club and the rugby club would be a 45 or 50 minute trip with a walk on the other end.

Not sure what the answer is but unless we move into a town or city, I cant see them doing these things on their own until they have a moped or car.

By the time I was “pre-teens” I was doing stuff in the next town or towns not dis-similar distances away. Football was to quote the cliche “jumpers for goalposts”…. but in general I just met my mates and we walked or ran (or some mates cycled) or we’d run to a place with a bus stop to places.

That’s just reminded me that aged 13, every Sat 8am some mates and I used to cycle 5 miles (on BMXs etc) to a chicken farm, pick eggs for 4hrs @ £1/hr, cycle back then get the bus into town and go swimming. Can’t see many kids in Surrey doing that these days.

I am adding this to my book of compliments to use on ladies.

Dangerous territory using ‘big’ in a compliment, I only use it as she is 5’10” (and out of earshot)…

‘Long and Lazy’ might have been a more appropriate phrase (Townes Van Zandt anyone?)

We had a local grass-roots downhill race held one summer, I pitied the lads cycling 12 miles on the road on their downhill bikes to get there, and then 12 miles back!

Hooli….

Steve, don’t get me wrong we did the same and my kids do plenty of playing football in the park, riding bikes in the woods and stuff like that but they still belong to clubs and these clubs are all a drive away.

Even if the bus from our village was better (it runs 5 times a day on weekdays, less on the weekend), it doesn’t go near the cricket club and the rugby club would be a 45 or 50 minute trip with a walk on the other end.

Not sure what the answer is but unless we move into a town or city, I cant see them doing these things on their own until they have a moped or car.

I think the answer is no harm will come if they don’t play rugby or cricket..
I’d never played rugby outside the very infrequent chance at school until Uni… avoided cricket as I’d rather run the XC … etc. but it wasn’t just me… quite honestly no idea if those clubs existed or not….

Now my 10yr old is in after school clubs… (partly convenient as OH teaches at the same school at the moment)… but when I was his age I’d have rushed home and played outside with mates, had tea (or dinner if you’re a southerner) and been back out with my mates…

It says something when there’s so much talk of kids going to clubs or the gym, as if that stuff is a requirement for staying active. It’s exactly that kind of thinking that’s the problem. If there are clubs nearby, and the kids want to go, great. However…

Kids are active when you kick them out at 8am for their walk to school.

They’re active when they get back and play football in the street.

If they want to play cricket, or tennis, or anything else, they can play with their mates. Jumpers for goalposts and all of that.

I don’t think I’m being nostalgic either. There are in some cases very real practical and safety concerns, but that is a problem we have created and it is one that we can undo. Kids should be entitled to these freedoms and I think it’s somewhat shameful to construct a society without them.

I reckon I do more than my parents, despite them having all the time in the world to exercise, now they’ve retired.

Do the majority of kids go to these clubs because both of their parents work? When I was a boy, my mum didn’t work. That meant I could be picked up from school and go home to play, have my tea and play some more. I couldn’t have done that if my mum had been at work.