This week’s article talked about an issue that has been brought to our attention time and time again, yet, somehow we have not had any regard for it. There has been a long-term U.S. study that has found through their research that roughly half of the children preschool aged are not going out daily to get their much needed outdoor playtime and exercise. The study was conducted on nearly 9,000 children and is said to affect more that of girls than boys. The reason being is the fact that boys seem to have much more appealing choices to entertain them as they play outside with sports. Not to mention that girls aren’t cut out for sports, but that they feel it’s much more geared to boys.
Another surprising find from this research was that race seemed to play a significant role as well. The study states that children from white families were getting substantially more outdoor play than those of Hispanic, Black or Asian backgrounds. It was also stated that forty-four percent of mothers took their child out for playtime where as only twenty-four percent fathers did.
In my opinion, it appears to be a sad and daunting issue that correlates perfectly with childhood obesity and the early onset of type 2 diabetes in children. Yet that obviously could not be the only factor. We can also point to the fact that technology is a necessary evil as well. From the TV sets to the iPods, Nintendo ds and things of the like, children are now finding much more ways to keep themselves occupied at home when their parents won’t take them out to play. It is sad and unfortunate since it is creating and establishing bad habits from a very early age that is bound to affect them later on in life.
Growing up, I was always outside. I can rarely remember a day where the weather was great out and I wasn’t outside. My mother always sacrificed to take me out to the park nearly every day to run around and play games with other children at the park. And the times when her job demanded her to work until 5pm, I was enrolled in afterschool care with the YMCA where we had an hour to do our homework, snack time, and then we played outside for the rest of the afternoon until our parents would come from work to pick us up. This is a wake up call for the children I hope to have in the future. I hope to continue and instill the same upbringing I had as a child.
Article was found on news.yahoo.com