Children are growing weaker and unfit

[Batteryhuman]

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/21/children-weaker-computers-replace-activity

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by this research but it is not good news.

I was most saddened that when asked to do a "wall bars test" not only could 10% of children tested not do it but another 10% wouldn't even try.

[lljkk]

Greater wealth, more people have cars and don't hesitate to hop in them for every shopping trip and at any sign of rain.

[fairydoll]

schools not having playing fields, people living in housing where they don't have gardens or suitable safe outside play areas, cost of swimming/sports classes are all major factors.
i do think schools need to address the problem as , children spend so much of their waking hours there,especially in winter when it gets dark as soon as they're home from school.
I think there should be state funding for poor children to access sports opportinities.

[lljkk]

90s, Ryoko, the change came in in the late 90s & early 00s. Following the Bulger case, the Soham murders & the high media coverage of single unusual & extreme cases (eg MMcCann); there are people on here who spent their 90s childhood outdoors, out of touch & unsupervised all day.

[fatlazymummy]

I have noticed children play differently nowadays. When I was a little girl we used to spend hours skipping [great cardiovascular ], apparently they don't do that very much now, also playing rounders, hopscotch etc. There again a lot of adults are less active so it's not surprising it filters down to kids.

[Ryoko]

Got nothing to do with consoles, I had consoles when I was a kid, I still fucked off out for hours on end vanishing off on my bike going off for miles on end and coming back when it was dark.

Kids just don't do that anymore, it's a whole brainwashing thing, it's implanted by the media in the minds of parents and kids, back in the 80's we was never worried about going out, ask a kid today about it and even the under tens have heard the stories and seen the news, they think something will happen to them, the parents are just as bad, it's all subconscious brainwashing.

[fairydoll]

sieglinde- being unfit is more hazardous to health than being overweight

[lljkk]

Oh Gawd, don't start that one again (strollers).
Mine are muscular & fit. Must be because they used stroller until nearly 5yo.

[Lostinherts]

One thing I have noticed is the amount of time children remain in pushchairs, at least until 3 and often, even at nursery school age!! My youngest never went in a pram unless ill or fast asleep (both rare) after age one and a half, went on combo of tricycles, scooters and bike with stabilisers. My other two were encouraged to walk long-ish distances as soon as they were able and now are very muscular and fit. Pass the monkey bar test like small paras in training. Get outta the buggies! Developing muscle starts early.

[sieglinde]

You know, if I had posted to say that fifty years ago kids could do more Latin and harder French/English than they can today, you would all have rounded on me with cries of evil elitism and backwardness; suddenly, though, because this is about sport, a decline in performance is a tragedy. Why on earth does it matter if kids can do the monkey bars? It's not the same as the problem of childhood obesity, which must be to do with regular exercise/calories in/out, and attempts to equate them are not credible.

[all4u]

The issue here is that modern urban life does not enable exercise - particularly when security issues are added into the mix. We moved from London to a Welsh hill farm on getting married two decades ago and our children have been brought up with the outdoors as part of their home (the house is a tiny cottage two-up two-down so they have to get out!). What with Mountain biking, ponies, herding sheep, climbing the hills around us 'to get away from it all' as well as ballet and fencing they are very fit and slim. But at school the PE teachers tend to be disparaging because they are not into team ball sports so they are treated like the couch potatoes - they conclude that that is just weird PE teacher behaviour and aren't bovvered! I hope these habits will set them up for an active life even if they end up in an urban environment They are not interested in X-boxes, Gameboys, etc but FB a lot. Probably starting them young is the thing as it is increasingly difficult to influence teenagers.

[bidibidi]

What a load of judgeypants you lot are . I spent many days of my 1970s childhood playing out or walking miles with my dog. Scrambling around in the bush. DC rarely "play out", and spend a lot of time watching videos, playing computer games and winding each other up browsing online (shopping).

DC are all fitter, stronger, faster and much more sporty than I ever was or could ever be. They can swim better, run faster, climb anything, handle balls -- and monkey bars, blardy brilliant at them in particular. I could never do any of that. They win or place well in cross country races (I struggled and still struggle not to be dead last). DD is being recruited for the swim club (I could never learn to swim properly until I was an adult). The only fitness event at school where I could achieve as high as "average" was situps. Everything else I was appallingly bad at.

[nightingale452]

My 9 year old DD1 can't do the monkey bars and never has been able to. She's not a particularly active child, never has been one to run everywhere like DD2, but she does do 3 hours of dancing classes a week which I encourage as it's the only time she's really active.

I feel the main problem with her lack of activity is school - the playground is a small square of tarmac (or in the summer this plus an area of grass) with absolutely nothing on it - I feel she's justified in finding playtimes boring, I think she and her friends just sit around, there isn't anything to do, and as there are so many children in a small space running around isn't particularly encouraged.

She's been wearing a pedometer for the last few days (DH is doing some fitness drive at work so she's been joining in) and I was horrified at how few steps she does during the school day (which, for a 9 year old, is most of the day). She only got over 10,000 once. We do our best with walking, but we live opposite school and quite a distance from anything else, so walking's not always practical. I would welcome daily PE at school - it seems to be the first thing dropped if anything else is to be done. Last week I questioned the fact that her PE T-shirt was clearly unworn and she told me she had to miss PE to finish a piece of work - I'd actually rather she did the PE!

[fairydoll]

My DDs both do gymnastics and are very strong.When the little one (5) does the monkey bars in the park people gawp and clap 'at that little girl'.
I am very proud but think its sad that it's obviously not the norm

[ivykaty44]

no need to get schools to do daily PE, just get the parents to walk their dc to school instead of driving them there in their cars, or get the parents to park 15 minutes walk away from the school and let their dc walk to school and meet them back at the same spot in the afternoon.

[darleneoconnor]

This is why I dont allow consoles in the house and take DCs to soft plays regularly so they can still exercise when it's raining.

I read that under 10's should be doing 10 hours of proper exercise a week.

IMO there should be compulsory DAILY PE in all schools.

[tethersend]

Schools selling off all the playing fields is a factor IMO.

[Ryoko]

One of a very few by the sounds of it.

I've never driven in my life and mostly walk to places as bus and train is expensive, I doubt DS can use monkey bars he's only 1.

[ivykaty44]

Ryoko I use a cycle for local trips and clock up over 50 miles per week going to and fro work and doing the shopping or fetching dd from swimming three four times a week - she has to cycle there herself. I can go 10 days withut using the car and do often as petrol is not cheap, in saying that though I share the car and don't always have it to use.

I do use my gym membership and cycle to the gym as I can park closer to the gym than any of the cars It makes me giggle to myself they try to park so close as they don't want to walk across the car park, I just dont' get that part?

I drive dd to tri training as it is a 3 mile trip and to cycle on B roads is a25 mile trip, so a tad to far with a two hour training session.

But, I still can't do the monkey bars and dd2 can....so what kind of an exapmple does that make me?

[aquos]

My 11 yo can do the monkey bars. He plays out most days after school with his friends, football or den building. He kick boxes on Saturday and plays footie after school on Wednesdays. I restrict his tv/computer/games console time to 2 hrs a day, he'd rather be out playing anyway.

But, he has no stamina, no staying power, no grit and determination. I took him for a 7 mile bike ride last weekend, he was thrilled at the prospect. However, we'd gone less than half a mile before he started complaining he was tired. I let him set his own pace, but there was not going to be any turning back. We stopped half way for a drink and a rest. He was genuinely dog tired afterwards.

His 10 yo sister who plays no sport and me, his fat 44 year old mum, managed just fine.

[Yukana]

I was active up to the age of 9/10 I'd say. But then things went downhill from there. Then again, I'd been bullied since the age of four, adults would do nothing about it - I'd just get told 'Just ignore them'. I was never an active child after the above age, and instead fell into depression. I didn't have games or internet at that age, so you can't blame it on that either.

[RobF]

If parents don't kick their kids out of the house, kids aren't likely to venture out of their own accord. Sitting home playing computer games and pissing about on the internet is easy. There's no shortage of green space round here, but kids just don't seem to want to make use of it anymore.

[CheerfulYank]

Ryoko I can go across the monkey bars and do not drive. :)

[CheerfulYank]

People don't do as much manual labor either...the school where I work just did the rope climbing unit with the DC last week. The farm kids scooted up that rope like nobody's business! :)

I know a lot of parents who are concerned about their DC getting enough outdoor time, but a lot of the those same parents are too fearful to let them jump and climb as much as the children would like too.

[Ryoko]

Kids do not go out on their own anymore to muck about with friends thats the problem plus there are less places to muck about, hell I'm 32 and I've noticed the amount of places to piss around has diminished massively, when I was growing up there was still bits of scrub land etc left over from the blitz that had not been built on, now all the kids have is playgrounds, which they visit with parents, hardly the way to have fun really and they ain't what they once where.

How many of you are fit anyway? how many of you can go across monkey bars?, how many go bundling off in the car everytime you want to go shopping or something? how many do sports etc?. role models start at home really.

[ivykaty44]

Nay when I was a lass a family swimming session consisted of walking half a mile to the baths playing in the pool and then a play on the swings in the park on the the half mile walk home - though it wasn't a family swim as me dad was working and me ma stayed home - it was cheaper for one child swim and at 8 I was allowed in to them there bath on me own as H&S hadn't been heard off and there were life gards that could save ya if you got in trouble in the waters