TO ASK ON EXERCISE A friend of mine, said they thought it was ok for a child of six

[GabbyLoggon]

to do 5 or 6 miles on a bike without a stop for recovery. Is the exercise debte that simple?

Totally agree on the perception of exercise miniwedge. I ride 6 miles each way to work. When I tell people where I bike from they react as though I'd ran a marathon. Cycling for transport/fun isn't really much more energetic than walking.

6 miles on a bike isn't far at all. unless it's quite hilly when a little breathr might be called for

Ds could and did do this easily at 6 and enjoyed it - he sometimes goes out for quite long runs with dh. Dd would and does whinge about it and would avoid putting a leg over a bike if she could possibly avoid it!

you will all have to decide whether its for your kids or for wish fulfillment on your part

Jim Foxx dropped down dead and gave all the black comedy wallahs a bloody
good laugh. where you set of parents laughing?

LETS START TALING SERIOUSLY ABOUT THE RISKS OF EXCESS EXERCISE. (even if they are minimal?)

Schools run for cover from the press when things go wrong with a CHILD)

well as I have a 5 yr old would will happily ride 8 miles without stopping... and then after the stop ride another 12 miles, another stop and then a further 4 miles and consider he had a fun day out with his parents .
I'd have to say it all depends on the child and how used to cycling they are. Mine's been using a bike as transport since they got too big for the bike trailer.

I'm impressed at the 4 yr olds who can cycle 6 miles!

DDs hands were too small to reach the brakes when she was 4 so hasn't had a chance to work up much stamina!

otherside when I did this with DS it was on a trail gator as he too couldn't use the breaks. He would pedal most of the way but always seemed to need a rest when going uphill

how can riding a bike moderatly be excess exercise, i found a report the other day detailing the amount of exercise and activity that children of various ages should be able to do.

i shall try and find it.

A six year old will simply stop before they get to the point of overdoing it. Mine didn't cycle properly by that age so she had to do the Yorkshire three peaks over a couple of weekends instead .

If you were talking about small children weightlifting you might have a point.

ok cant do links but everything i have read pretty much says that children should do a MINIMUM of an hour to 90mins of moderate exercise i e so you get out of breath but can still talk.

children will naturally STOP if something is getting too much for them, young children esp.

the only bit i foudn about safety/health issues was that as children cannot regulate their body temp as well as an adult they should make sure to drink plenty.

Is it only me who doesn't really understand what gabbylogan is talking about?

i think she is talking about the few and thankfully rare cases when a child drops dead when exercising? the only ones i know of are when a child has had a heart attack? normally caused by an undiagnosed heart defect or other condition that could not have been forseen.

like i said very rare and awful for those involved but not a reason not to let my children ride their bikes, we regularly take them on bike rides and they love it.

figures show that there are rising cases of overwieght and obese children and this is mainly down to sedentary lifestyles with more children being driven to school, not playing out etc.

like i said the average child needs at least an hour or an hour and a half of moderate exercise a day, be that playing, riding a bike, etc many children are not getting this amount of exercise.

the reality is we should probably we worrying about the LACK of exercise our kids get, not if they do too much!

My 4-year-old regularly does 3 miles. But then the stabilisers came off ages ago and we are a very outdoor family with a big emphasis on exercise. Surely it depends on the child's fitness, ability and lifestyle?

Sunshine sweeps softly through my window today....lets make it difficult for you....does a pushy, sporty parent want to raise a obseesive exercise child. It can happen. Could the child be bribed with rewards? I welcome your comments on these know hypothetical situations, sunshine....sweeps softly (give over)

does a pushy, sporty parent want to raise a obseesive exercise child

a few... if you look at the way some Wimbledon stars or golfers were raised. No idea whether bribery was involved or not. But these are the rare exceptions. I doubt many MNers could be arsed with all that so you're asking the wrong people

grimma thanks , this is a big question across the board....are we trying to raise kids to be themslves or to fulfill our ambitions for them? God knows its a difficult job.......Because ex spurts say the first 5 years is crucial. It probably is. But the child knows nothing about the grown up world then,,so the parent must do the worldly manhoovering.. (Notice the way I get out of spelling problems?)

well you get pushy parents in all areas of life, but you can only lead a horse to water and not make it drink.

ie my eldest son, from a young age, ie when he could first walk he had no interset in climbinb, running, kicking a ball etc, still at 11 he is really not sporty, he does pe at school and as a family we go on bike rides, walks etc, but he wouldnt always come if we didnt say he had to and when we get to a play area etc he tends not to want to climb on equipment etc unlike my younger three boys.

ds2 however, crawled at 5mth, walked at 9mths and climbed as soon as he could crawl, is a very physical child and on the go NON STOP, totally obsessed with football, despite having an elder brother and a father that dont really like it, he would play it all day, eat, sleep, breath football is a statement totally true of him. he is now 8 and very sporty, loves PE, bike riding, scootering, korfball, football etc you cant keep him still!

ds3 again very physical, not so keen on football but rode a bike wiht no stablisers just after his 4th bday and regularly goes on long bike rides, he can infact ride better than his elder brothers, just natural co-ordination and balance.

ds4 seems to be a mix of ds2 and ds3 likes scootering, loves running and playing football etc.

we dont push them to do anything, tho we do strongly encourage ds1 to do more exercise/sport, purely because he does so little and also has a tendency to overeat, he just loves food and always has done and if he didnt exercise he would no doubt have an issue with weight which we dont want.

i think on the whole kids can do more exercise than we give them credit for,t hey are designed to be physical and as a general rule will stop when they need to.

can you push them to do more? undoubtably yes, can you make them do so much that they would hurt themselves? maybe tho in very young children i would think it hard as they do just stop what they are doing.

and if you push a child and they come to love that activity and excel in it thats not always a bad thing? i am sure many top sports players have had moments when they havent wanted to train etc and they were encouraged/ coerced to do so and reaped the benefits in the long run.

like many things its a very fine line, but i do maintain that most kids dont get enough exercise and worrying over them doing too much is prob not a huge issue.

Anyone else think gabby has obese kids and is trying to justify their lack of any excercise whatsoever by claiming it's becuase she's not conforming to the competetive-parent-living-through-their-child stereotype?

Gabby seriously, some kids are naturally sporty, others aren't. Some are good at maths, some aren't. Some are good at playing a musical instrument, others aren't. Some parents are pushy, some are lazy. On the whole, most children and parents are somewhere in the middle. Just becuase a child happens to be particularly good at something does not mean that they have a pushy parent behind them forcing them to practice/excercise/do worksheets all hours of the day. A few will, but for the most part natural ability is the key factor.

We have yet to find an upper limit to DS1's energy.

I was amazed when out with one of his mates once and the kid said 'I'm tired, can we have a rest?'. DS1 has never uttered those words, though I have.

DS2 is looking like the same.

Some kids are fitter than others, some will be nature some will be nurture, there is no blanket rule.

DS1 did quite firmly tell me the other day that he was going to be the best tennis player in the world when he grows up, so I look forward to lots of running around. At least tennis doesn't have too much crap attached.

I have seen DS1 literally bounce off the walls when we haven't been out for a day or so.

When we got swine flu that was the hardest bit, he kicked it in a couple of days, but I needed to stay in, by the end of the week I was losing my mind.

morloth ds2 is adamant he too will be a top sports player, football... and he literally plays for hours a day, in the rain, snow whatever, that boy is never still and also is never tired.

and re sports and talent etc, i was talking to a PE teacher and also read somewhere that some people no matter how hard they try at a sport may never be much above average because part of it is to do with how fast your nerves and your muscles twitch/move? some people have exceeding fast muscle twitches (iam sure there is a more technical name but i cant remember) and therefore fast reflexes and an ability to move, run, react to get a ball etc faster. this is genetic and you either have it or you dont.

ds2 apparently does his PE teacher has said he is amazed at the speed his feet move at and his reaction times etc. he doesnt get it from me!

and morloth does your ds1 not really get ill? i know my ds2 doesnt, not sure if its related somehow to energy levels, but i have really only known him to be properly ill once, last year just beforoe xmas he got tonsilitus, the flu and a vomiting and diahrea bug all in the same week and it floored him, never ever seen him like it, but he was back to normal much quicker than his other siblings who were also ill. i swear we need to bottle their energy and sell it instead of nuclear power!

I'm a bit by some of the posts on here. Gabby, I'm not sure if one of your posts was directed at me or not, but just in case I'll make another post to clarify.

I'm not that into sports TBH. I run to keep fit but that's about it. I don't enjoy games or competitive sports at all. However, I am a single parent with a bouncy labrador retriever, so my DC have always had to come out with me 2x a day whether they wanted to or not. As soon as I could I made them walk it because pushing a buggy through the woods is unbelievably hard work, especially when the ground is soft. As soon as they had bikes they wanted to ride them in the woods instead of walking. They enjoyed this so much I ended up getting my own and joining them to keep up. Now we're quite fit but the poor dog is bloody knackered.

DS1 very very rarely ill. Swine flu was in November 2009 and was the last time he was actually unwell. It lasted 3 days.

DS2 is now 15 months and has one cold during that time.

They are exhausting.

Neither has ever needed any medication other than calpol for teething or something like that. No antibiotics and I didn't give him the tamiflu for the swine flu because he recovered really before I had decided to give it to him.

A lot of involved responses there. I think some parents do reward children for passing exams and all sorts of things. They believe presents and money are good motivators.

On adults I had a on air row with a North eastern lady phone-in presenter she advertised MOTIVATIONAL as a skill to be paid for

I said was that bullying with an excuse built in . She did not take kindly. Sopme people when they have an heart felt idea...Lose grasp of the fact that it is a matter of opionio

I am now experienced enough to do both sides of any debate. I will have a crack at it here some time