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Children See, Children Do

Hey folks,

You all know that I love my Son Joshua. He is Two and a half now. He is my shadow. Everything I do, he does. Where ever I go, he goes. He is a little sponge, soaking up EVERYTHING, all the time.

Now this is normal, and most of the time taken for grated. Everyone knows this. That is why we are told to watch what we say and do.

I have already told you that I will be making sure that Joshua learns how to, and never loses his ability to use his imagination. I will , I’m sure, be telling him, go out and play. I do not want him just locked in his room, Online, Watching TV, or playing Video Games. I would much rather have him outside running around, burning energy off, and broadening his mind, then joining the statistic of the most obese and over weight society.

It seems that we NOW have the experts telling us, I’m right. More than I even knew. Apparently, even before they were born, Parents have a profound effect on how active their kids will be, by what they do BEFORE. I think. According to the AFP - Active parents raise active kids, study shows

PARIS (AFP) - Active parents can, by their example, encourage their children to be physically active, but the effect is less than widely thought, according to a study of more than 5,000 10- and 11-year-olds published Friday.

Its findings touch on strategies for reducing diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular conditions and diabetes that are growing at epidemic proportions due mainly to a couch-potato lifestyle.

A team of British and US researchers led by Calum Mattocks of the University of Bristol monitored 4,451 children for at least 10 hours a day over three days, tracking the intensity and frequency of their exercise with accelerometers attached to their ankles.

The children were also asked to record any time they swam or rode bicycles because the devices do not monitor these activities accurately.

The researchers then compared the results against statements provided by the parents on their level of physical activity in several categories.

These included maternal walking or swimming during pregnancy, parental exercise when the child was 21 months old, maternal smoking during pregnancy, and parental smoking at an early age.

Surprisingly, children of smoking parents tended to be slightly more active physically than kids whose parents were non-smokers.

"Few of the early life factors were associated with later physical activity in 10- to 11-year-olds, and for those that were, the association was modest," says the study, published in the British journal The Lancet.

But even the scarcity of links is important, the researchers said.

It can help health officials provide guidelines to parents which emphasise the factors -- however few -- that are known to work, they said.

Well, I'm glad we worked that all out. More wasted money. Now Cigarettes are GOOD and help your kids be more active? Right?

Look, trust me, they do not say in this study, but I guarantee you, if you actually SPEND TIME with your kids, outside, playing, they will grow up to be healthy and active. Let them BE Couch Potatoes, they will not be.

When I said I would be telling Josh to go out and play, I was not implying that I would do so from in front of the TV. Kids see, Kids Do. Would that not have saved a lot of money in research?
Peter