I went back to my parent’s house this weekend to do laundry for free and steal food for the next month. I drove past my old elementary school. I looked in the parking lot where I learned to ride my bike and saw what seemed to be parents teaching their child to ride their bike too. Upon further inspection I saw that the bike the child was trying to ride had only one wheel. These parents were actually teaching their child to ride a unicycle.
While it was a little strange to see a child learning to ride a unicycle rather than a bicycle, I applaud that these people had their child outside, rather than just sitting inside on a computer or playing video games or watching TV. I don’t want to use the phrase, “Kids today…” because it will make me sound really old but, kids today don’t exercise enough. Kids today don’t even go outside enough. In my old neighborhood there used to be children running through the street from sunrise to sundown. This past weekend I saw one child outside. This child wasn’t even doing anything physical outside. He was sitting on his stoop playing a gameboy, or whatever the current equivalent is.
I understand that not too many people have moved from my neighborhood so a lot of the kids that were playing when I was young are probably in college like me or at least in high school. I still feel with how many articles and news stories about childhood obesity that are out, (I seriously see at least one a week and that’s from someone who doesn’t read a newspaper/watch the news very often.) there must be a correlation between the fact that I don’t see many kids outside in my neighborhood and the level of childhood obesity in America. I know that it is a lot easier for parents to stick their kids in front of the TV rather than getting them to go outside, but getting your kids to play outside is the best way to get them to exercise. It is more dangerous for the kids to just sit inside than for them to play in the street.
I’ll admit that this whole post was just written as filler. I just wanted to point out the fact that I saw some parents teaching their child how to ride a unicycle. I don’t know who these people are, but I feel that they are awesome.