WEDNESDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER 2008
People have been asking if my kids are super fit – No, they aren’t, they are normal fit!! They do school sports – cross country and swimming. They do Saturday Hockey, have had squash lessons and we “make them” (kids speaking!) cycle 6k to the school bus stop and back (almost) everyday rain or shine. We ‘send’ them outside to bike and we tolerate the regular independent woodwork sessions, where they construct some precarious jumping ramps for stunt riding. In the summer they disappear around the farm for a few hours and return wet and slathered in clay, having made mud slides on our farm tracks by the ponds. We encourage them to get out, be active and have fun.
We are working on the premise that by seeing their parents do some form of regular exercise we are setting a good example and they will see it as a normal part of their life in some point in the future. I’ve always been active around them and included them if I could. When they were smaller I did a regular 6k run circuit and would push one kid in the buggy and push the other on his bike. (I’m sure there are loads of people out there that have done the same thing!) The one on the bike soon got very wise to the fact that if he got tired, he could stop peddling, and because we had to get home I had no choice but to push him! He was gutted the first time I decided not to push, waved goodbye to him and said “See you when you get home!” I can still picture the look of abject horror that crossed his face and his little legs working double time to catch me up as I disappeared over the horizon!
Occasionally I do see our example is rubbing off on them. In the last school holidays my older son decided that he wanted to be on top form for the upcoming school hockey matches and independently choose to run 2k down our road each day (measured by the letter boxes) to keep up his fitness. They also decide to accompany me on their bikes when I am running. Mostly I enjoy this, but as with the turbo training sessions, they provide copious amounts of entertainment by cutting across my path, braking just in front of me, showing me one-handed tricks and talking non-stop – bit distracting at times. (I’m also envious because they can bike no handed).
Yes, alright, setting an example is no guarantee they won’t turn into teenage-beer-swilling- pizza-guzzling-sofa-lounging-Gameboy-addicts but somewhere in their brain they’ll have a connection or two that suggests exercise is great, fun and healthy.
People have been asking if my kids are super fit – No, they aren’t, they are normal fit!! They do school sports – cross country and swimming. They do Saturday Hockey, have had squash lessons and we “make them” (kids speaking!) cycle 6k to the school bus stop and back (almost) everyday rain or shine. We ‘send’ them outside to bike and we tolerate the regular independent woodwork sessions, where they construct some precarious jumping ramps for stunt riding. In the summer they disappear around the farm for a few hours and return wet and slathered in clay, having made mud slides on our farm tracks by the ponds. We encourage them to get out, be active and have fun.
We are working on the premise that by seeing their parents do some form of regular exercise we are setting a good example and they will see it as a normal part of their life in some point in the future. I’ve always been active around them and included them if I could. When they were smaller I did a regular 6k run circuit and would push one kid in the buggy and push the other on his bike. (I’m sure there are loads of people out there that have done the same thing!) The one on the bike soon got very wise to the fact that if he got tired, he could stop peddling, and because we had to get home I had no choice but to push him! He was gutted the first time I decided not to push, waved goodbye to him and said “See you when you get home!” I can still picture the look of abject horror that crossed his face and his little legs working double time to catch me up as I disappeared over the horizon!
Occasionally I do see our example is rubbing off on them. In the last school holidays my older son decided that he wanted to be on top form for the upcoming school hockey matches and independently choose to run 2k down our road each day (measured by the letter boxes) to keep up his fitness. They also decide to accompany me on their bikes when I am running. Mostly I enjoy this, but as with the turbo training sessions, they provide copious amounts of entertainment by cutting across my path, braking just in front of me, showing me one-handed tricks and talking non-stop – bit distracting at times. (I’m also envious because they can bike no handed).
Yes, alright, setting an example is no guarantee they won’t turn into teenage-beer-swilling- pizza-guzzling-sofa-lounging-Gameboy-addicts but somewhere in their brain they’ll have a connection or two that suggests exercise is great, fun and healthy.