to think that children should be made to exercise?

[manicinsomniac]

unless they are ill, injured or disabled?

I've lost track of the number of parents I've heard say, "Oh but little X doesn't like running around, little Y is more of an indoors person, little Z is not the sporty type" etc.

a) the vast majority of children love being active and will enjoy the right exercise given the opportunity.

b) even if they do hate it - so what? Many adults hate it too, we still do it or suffer the consequences.

I really think that exercise should be built into a daily routine for a healthy lifestyle.

AIBU?

probably because they are now driven everywhere

And because their parents don't allow them to be active at a young age. They get told to sit still, watch Cbeebies and have some more Buttons for being 'good'.

A lot of that will also be down to diet though surely? Even doing a moderate amount of "running around" will be a fruitless task if the diet is full of crap!

YABU. I LOATHE sport. I mean really hate it and I'm terrible at it. PE at school was humiliating. I have asthma and the teacher didn't give a crap/ wouldn't accept that this would effect how much physical activity I could do.

I would never force a child to do sport.

If you are eating a healthy balanced diet and getting on with normal life you should be ok health wise. Children naturally play, you don't need to force them to do some prescribed 'sport' to keep them fit.

I am a healthy weight for my height, perfect BMI, and I don't need to hit a ball with a stick and run around in a circle to be healthy.

the amount of calories we eat nowadays is less than we did in the past, we just do much less exercise.
If the kids walked or cycled 2 miles to school and back, then stayed out playing football or just exploring til bedtime, helped with the chores on a Saturday and were allowed to get cold enough to need a jumper in the winter they could eat as much as they liked.

Sirzy children are programmed to be far more active then adults. Even children who eat rubbish can be very skinny if they are constantly on the move.

TimeWasting I totally agree with that.

Walk places. Too many kids are ferried everywhere by car because a half hour walk is considered 'impossible'

My dd (7) is not a sports fan. She likes splashing in a pool, walking and cycling, but sports - not so much. Her brother is quite different.

In fact, if I did all that, I could eat as much as I liked.

If the kids walked or cycled 2 miles to school and back, then stayed out playing football or just exploring til bedtime, helped with the chores on a Saturday and were allowed to get cold enough to need a jumper in the winter they could eat as much as they liked.

I completely agree with this statement. It's not about 'making' children do sport. It's about letting them get on with life.

Littlepurpleprincess - nobody has mentioned forcing to do sport but encouraging to be active, two very different concepts.

Just good diet alone isn't enough for a lot of people everyone NEEDS physical activity for good health (not just weight wise) be that formal sport or another activity or day to day play/running around

I agree Sirzy. At my school 'encouraging an active lifestyle' meant 'making you do rounders/football/running' and making fun of you if you weren't capable. The OP came across as thinking that children should be told to just do sport and get on with it.

Of course all children need physical activity but I'm shocked that anyone thinks you need to make them. I'd have a hard time trying to stop them!

Agree, it's good to be active, but bad to force someone into 'sport' if they aren't that way inclined.

It's only since ds started gymnastics (which he loves) that I've realised I wasn't actually crap at sports as a child. I was good at gymnastics but we didn't do that in senior school. We did athletics and ruddy ball games. Hockey - scary and couldn't predict where the ball was going, tennis ditto, athletics - impossible, how the hell DOES anyone get over a hurdle? (The teacher never bothered to explain). Only sport we were allowed to do where I could actually participate was netball, because the ball was big enough for me to tell where it was going (I have a squint which means my binocular vision isn't great - glasses correct the squint but I still have problems with things like archery or indeed binoculars.)

Such a shame that the ruddy school system put me off sport completely. If I'd been allowed to continue with gymnastics, things could have been very different, and I might have actually enjoyed exercising. Although I do walk everywhere so am not completely unfit.

The problem is budgets/staffing means that schools can only offer so many different options especially in the time allocated to pe. In that sense a lot comes to the parents to encourage the interests.

Where I live schools currently don't do rugby, but if Ds wanted to play I would take him 20 mins drive away to where there are great junior rugby clubs. Same if he had an interest in another activity which couldn't be accessed via school or he wanted to take further.

I think blaming schools is only skimming the wider issue really.

I had the same experience Edam. If my school had offered Yoga, jogging or aerobics I would probably feel very different now, but team sports are scary and I don't have the co-ordination. This isn't a failure on my part either. We can't all be good at everything, I just wish someone had told me that when I was 13....

no, I didn't necessarily mean children should be forced into organised sport. But I do think they should be made to exercise in some form, whether that's by turning the tv off and allowing them out to play with their friends, accompanying them on a walk or bike ride or by insisting on an organised sports/dance/gymnastics club.

am I blaming parents? - mmm, maybe in some cases. As many people said most children naturally want to be active but some just don't get the chance.

all those saying about walking to school etc please could you tell me roughly how far a 3.5 yr old should be able to walk. I would love to get DD to walk to nursery (about 1.5mile) but i only need to get to the end of my road and she starts complaining about her legs being tired etc. If i take the jogger then she just uses any excuse to get in it and if i try and get her to walk we just get into tantrums etc and don't get anywhere. She will happily play in the garden running and climbing all day if i let her but i just can't seem to manage to get her to walk any great distance. Any ideas greatly recieved.

I don't understand how you stop children being active TBH. All you have to do is give them the opportunity - stick them in the garden, give them something to jump up and down on indoors, stick some music on, go to the park. All of those things a parent can do while merrily sitting on their arses themselves.

It must take a real effort to remove all opportunities for exercise IYSWIM.

TBH I think the difference is cars and that's the long and short of it.

I've never heard anyone say their child didn't like running about. Most children don't need any encouragement to run about, mine certainly don't. They are a nightmare if they don't get the chance to burn off a bit of energy.

I would expect a non disabled child of that age to manage 1.5 miles vnum. Mine did but then we didnt own a car, i had 3 in 3 years so numbers 1 and 2 were heaved out of the buggy pretty early on!
But it is weird how they run around like maniacs but flump for a short walk to school.

Thanks riveninside I thought she should be able to manage it. I think i might just have to allow plenty of extra time and try and distract her along the way and see how we go.

Vnmum - do you have a car? If so would it be an option to gradually park further away from the school so she gradually gets used to the longer distances?