Sports day shock

[Mrslarge24]

My children have recently had their sports days.
I have one very sporty child, and one that gets very anxious about anything sport-related and dreads sports day! Much like myself as a kid.
One sports day was for y3&y4, the other was for Y5 & y6.
I was amazed at the lack of general fitness in so many of the kids.
They had to do a "long-distance run" which was about 200m. A huge amount of them couldn't run it all and some didn't even make it half way before walking and panting.
My non-sporty one managed it fine, because although he doesn't enjoy much sport we do go for long walks, he plays in the garden alot and loves swimming with us so has a basic fitness level. Much like myself, I'm no fitness fanatic!
AIBU to think this is shocking to see children of this age not be able to run/jog 200m?!
i guess it's computers/iPads etc but at what point does a parent start to feel ashamed to have let their children get so unfit?!
Made me feel quite sad 😢

I realise I am lucky to live somewhere where I can slap a watch on my kid and let him loose, it's much harder in cities I know.

I came from a NZ boys' independent to a UK equivalent, and coached swimming. I was shocked at how flabby and unfit British kids were in comparison to Kiwis. In my NZ school, as a houseparent, the standard "discouragement" for messing about after lights out and several warnings was up at 6 a.m. and running around the field. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that such a "discouragement" was absolutely forbidden as being unfair and humiliating.

I take it, you don't work, if you walk him to school? That's a luxury most of us don't have.

I have a rare genetic condition that causes weakness in childhood but is often difficult to diagnose. I now realise that's why I found certain aspects of sport so hard.

And I do feel angry when people are too ready to judge.

But equally I can see children's lives are often so sedentary. I can't be active with mine anywhere as much as I would like but I do make sure they get plenty of activity through clubs and walking to school and by organising lots of fun sports I can either watch or take part in if I am having a good day. But a lot of that is facilitated by having a reasonable income and a flexible job that means I can walk them to school

I grew up in the country, and in my teens I used to earn money gathering potatoes. It was hard, back-breaking work, but I could give the men doing it too a run for their money!! Kids just wouldn't do it now. I was shit at sport but I was fit in other ways!

I do work, my husband and I both work full time but we both WFH and don't need to start until 9, which gives one of us a total of 10 minutes to walk the half mile back home after drop off!

I don't know if I would class WFH as a luxury anymore, but it has benefits for sure

It very much is a luxury, and one I very much appreciate. I wfh now but my children are grown up. It would have made life so much easier if I could have done it when they were little or even when they were teenagers, but they'd all grown up by the time Covid hit.

I had 7+ years of my children being in different schools/nursery so for a very long time I had two dropoffs in the morning a couple of miles apart while DH always managed to work so far away that it fell to me. I'd have killed to wfh back then, or even in the summers when they were old enough to be fairly self sufficient but not old enough to be left alone.

I volunteer with a kids activity and I do notice less skills. It’s not so much obesity, I see lots of obese kids who seem active. But kids of all sizes, who can’t climb up a slide, who carefully walk down steps, who aren’t able to do monkey bars.

Kids should have the balance to run down steps and the core strength to manage a fireman pole or monkey bars. This is a very basic level of kid fitness that every child should be able to do.

it is definitely a worry for their future health. I think it’s just a lack of play opportunities, especially outside.

Just one session?

Is games separate to PE?

Old person here.

I played out a lot and I was very sporty

I couldn't climb the ropes or swing on the monkey bars. Never had good core strength

Well they did say My non-sporty one managed it fine, because although he doesn't enjoy much sport we do go for long walks, he plays in the garden alot and loves swimming with us so has a basic fitness level. Much like myself, I'm

I suppose there has always been people lacking core strength & people who just aren’t as athletic. I’m not a super sporty athletic person myself, I have maintained a basic level of fitness. But it’s noticeable that more kids can’t do these basic things now

It’s well studied that kids are less fit today.

https://www.essex.ac.uk/news/2018/01/22/least-fit-child-20-years-ago-would-be-among-today’s-fittest

This is why I hate signing up for anything I can't sit in on at least once! Some classes are full on though- i've sat in on a few of my sons Judo classes and they are really on the go all the time, lots of cardio running games in between the grappling and core strength exercises. His body shape has noticeably changed in a couple of months to be stronger and leaner and I never noticed that from his football or other sports.

I was thinking this. I was a slim outdoor child- swimming, hiking, climbing, horse riding etc etc. playing out in the evenings too.

I distinctly remember not being able to do the monkey bars- I used to climb up and walk on top of them instead. I think it’s a particular skill… I could climb a cliff no bother so I could hold my body weight.

That is why this is so disgusting. Some of it is because children are eating more shite and moving less because of lifestyle changes of their parents and many because their parents are skint. Either way it is shocking and will result in awful health consequences for this generation healthy or not as she health system will be unable to cope.

200 is a sprint so they should be running at full pelt until the end. Your right about middle distance though I remember at secondary one lad ran the 1500 he ran off so fast and died a death the last two laps , still finished though to massive applause

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2018/12/07/new-zealand-rated-globally-for-children-s-activity-levels.html

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/116616459/child-obesity-nz-second-worst-in-oecd-39-per-cent-of-kids-overweight-or-obese

Re New Zealand above: I’m afraid NZ is actually pretty appalling for childhood obesity, and physical activities are ranked poorly as well.

The image of countries like NZ is “clean and green/sports,” but these kinds of cultural preoccupations don’t actually seem to correlate very well with national fitness levels. NZ cities still, to a large extent, are full of one-storey bungalow sprawl (though there have been some attempts to densify cities in the last 10 years or so, with some success). As a result, most people are extremely car dependent and there is little walking. In general, fitness levels at the population level correlate far better with urban layouts/transportation modes than with self-conscious “sports/gym” type initiatives; exercise works best in practice when it is incidental and part of people’s lives.

As for the UK, many people talk with both sides of their mouths. Nearly all people, if you ask them, will say things like “Oooh yes, we should be getting more exercise as part of our daily routine! I wish my lifestyle let me get exercise and walking throughout the day!”

But then, an article comes up on a village in France or Spain that banished its cars to the outskirts and made the interior of the village more-or-less car-free. Cue horror from the majority of commentators: “What if you have to bring shopping in from your car?” “What if you have children with you, or a baby?” “What if it’s raining?” “What if it’s hot?” “What about in winter?”

And I’m like….. Soooooo….. you want a lifestyle with built-in, incidental exercise, BUT you don’t want to be forced to move if you have to push a trolley/carry a rucksack, manage a child at the same time, or be in less than 100% ideal weather/temperature. You realize that that cancels out most incidental day-to-day exercise, right? Getting exercise as part of one’s day to day live inherently involves developing some resilience about the fact that you might have to carry/push things, deal with kids or cope with some heat or cold sometimes.

I was very little when John F. Kennedy became US president. He established athletic and PE mínimums for us and I remember having to run and jump and throw a softball and being graded on it - or at least our results being noted.
It was a huge deal at the time.
We had to run around the length of the playground (in primary school) or run around the track (in middle & high schools) without exception, except for medical excuses like asthma, etc.
Once every year in high school we were tested. Swimming was added during the warmer months, and bowling during the winter and indoor games like badminton & basketball & tumbling for girls. All very active.
That was before home computers and cell phones.
I’m in my 60s. It seems to me if they don’t crack down on this in school like they did on us, nothing much will change.
Parents are busy making ends meet. They’re busy running their homes. They’re just busy, period. I don’t see why the powers-that-be in both the UK and the US couldn’t use JFK’s blueprint and do the same thing starting at age 6 and ending at age 17-18.
I can’t provide a link, but it was called “The US Physical Fitness Program,” and it ran from 1960 to 1962. But for most of us, it lasted our entire school life.

Within the UK, smaller gardens probably correlate with more obesity simply because they are going to be lower income on average. (London may be an exception).

Cross-culturally, however, bigger houses and gardens correlate fairly consistently with more obesity, not less, among adults and children (Oz and the US etc are even fatter than the UK). Bigger houses and gardens means more sprawl and less walking outside the home.

Of course, the UK manages to have tiny homes AND a fairly high level of sprawl, due to the cultural dislike of tall buildings and apartment living, so the worst of both worlds, basically.

There are plenty of cheap sports we pay £5 a month subs for athletics where she goes twice a week. Hockey is also only £8 a month + subs. If parents really are skint park runs are free, local park gyms and skate parks are free. I don’t think money is the issue here, it’s not being bothered.

This is bollocks. My kids bring packed lunches, I was not happy about them having school meals when we were in the uk. Packed lunches are healthy. I also work full time as do many so they are in wrap around care every day. They are sprinting around when we go to collect them, and they play lots of sport. They are fit and healthy and athletic and I know many similar. Thinking that working parents can’t have fit healthy kids is frankly so far off the mark.

I agree. We might not have eaten nearly as much, but they have been around for quite a long time.

People also blame everything on sugar - as if it has only just been discovered and no-one ever had it before.

@GreenTeaLikesMe - I live in NZ. There are two primary schools within walking distance of my house and I see the kids out playing all the time. At one they are usually running around for a time while their parents sit outside in their cars waiting to pick them up! There are still a few who actually get to and from school by themselves. The other school has the kids running around the block several times quite often. Schools here, well in my town, generally have quite sizeable playing fields. Many children play sports at the weekends. While the size of gardens is decreasing, there are still plenty of houses on quarter acre sections.

Of course there are a lot more obese kids than there used to be, but overall I would imagine the average kiwi kid has more exposure to activity of some sort than those in the UK do. I recently listed all the types of sporting activities available in my small town to a friend in the UK and she was amazed.

God the excuses on here!!

It's your children!

Its great she can advocate for herself and not feel forced into doing things that will harm her.

The whole resilience thing pisses me off. My DC school focus on it a lot and its applied in blanket way and doesn't reflect any individual needs. Its not a level playing field for kids with hypermobility or chronic illnesses or who are Autistic or have mental health issues. Life is already harder and resilience looks a lot different for some kids than others.