The Parents Role in Fitness

Hey guys. What is your opinion on the role a parent should play in fitness?

How did your parents help you to get fit when you were young? Whose responsibility is it that a child be in good shape? At what age does it become their responsibility?

I know that my parents put in swimming lessons, some sports, etc when I was younger. By the time I turned 16, I was 100% manager of all my activities. I think I would have stayed out of trouble, and benefitted greatly from having a better fitness push from the parents.

Being pretty much a kid now (15) and someone who once was extremly fat, and now wrestles, does MMA, and one of the more healthy people I know, I was lucky I was able to find out how to help myself without parental intervention.

My opinion is you should definitley keep your kid active at a young age. Gymnastics, swimming, wrestling are all great. If your kid doesn't mind it, get him or her on weights or BW exersizes, never going to hard (make sure not to be that crazy dad, do it because your kid wants to). Raise your child to want to be physically fit and feel good about it. If he or she hates lifting/BWE then just amke sure to keep him/her active, play soccer and catch with them and keep them moving.

Equally important in my opinon, is making sure they keep a good solid diet. Seriously limit or completly forbey their intake of soda, when they get old enough to want caffine, give them tea, and give them healthy morning breakfasts (oatmeal, whole grain toast, yogurt etc.) Make them good lunches, always have them eat their vegies and give them a good dinner. I think that will keep them healthy and very physically fit, and I would have anything to have done this as a younger child.

Note I am not a parent so this is just my theories at work, no personal experience.

-Nick

My parents bought me a kettlebell for my birthday.

I'm not a parent either. I have a young brother though, and it kills me to see my mom feeding him pop all day.

ARG!

I think that parents at one point should stop pushing their kids
'cause if you push too hard a teenager will almost always do the
exact opposite of what you want him/her to do.

When I was a kid my parents had me join a gymnastics club, later
it was judo, when I quit that at age 11 I decided to play soccer,
then did scuba diving (twice a week the training included
swimming laps and playing underwater rugby), athletics,
volleyball.

I don't think I needed an extra push at that time. I could have
used it when I was in my twenties though. ;-)

Nick is right, parents should definitely make sure their kids eat
well.

Some parents just push their kids too much in a direction they
don't want to go. I see it all the time at my judo club. The kids are
unhappy and disturb the whole class and all that because their
parents force them to go there. Maybe some of them would
rather play soccer instead but the parents don't want to hear
about it.

I think parents play a huge role until the child can make his own decisions. It's also important for parents to set a good example. It doesn't help a child to be motivated to be fit, when he sees mom and dad chugging at the colas all day.

Parents play a big role. My mum hated even watching other people do exercise, let alone do it herself, and as such i didnt really do any sports other than kick a ball around in the park til i got old enough to find clubs/gyms for myself.

lol...

I grew up on a farm.

might as well been a strength & conditioning facility..

When we weren't working we were wrestling, swimming, riding bicycles, walking (hunting), running (paintball)


Then again we only has two tv channels (nbc and cbs) and one of them still came in fuzzy.. only lack of sunlight made you go indoors during warm months. and half the time that was just an excuse to make a bonfire!

I was a fat kid.

Activity was never a problem. Eating habbits where.
Parents coulda stopped buying me cookies and crap.

i was a chunky kid due to bad eating habits as
well.

my mom (bless her heart) has never been "fitness
minded". being a single mom...she tried to make
sure we had well balanced meals and such...but it
was just another "typical" american family
diet....too much refined starch, too much soda, etc.

i probably wasn't as active as i could have been,
but i did bike ride a lot growing up. played
baseball some. ran around with my brothers when
i'd go visit them.

and i also worked construction with my step-dad
on a fairly regular basis between ages 14 and 22.



When I was 11, my parents put me through karate and judo but I quit because I had pnuemonia and had to go to the hospital and my mom was afraid of that happening again so she didn't let me go to judo and karate again, so I got really fat because my asthma and pnuemonia did not allow me to exercise. When I was 14 she put me through TKD and now is going to put me through a Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu. Before doing TKD I was really fat but now I am a skinny punk. I went from a 36'' waist line to a 29''. She accepts me eating healthy and she does it herself because she wants to lose weight.

When im home I lift with my dad. Which something I never though I would enjoy as much as I do. He was with me the day I set 3 new PR's over Christmas. Chances are my dad will always be in better shape than me. Even at 53 he would make me look really stupid in anything endurance related. The only thing I would do differently, is put in an effort to have more in common fitness wise with my child. My dad loves to hike and bike. But there isnt anything I could hate more.

Parents' role in fitness. They should have no role in fitness. That's what I think. Now as I see it, parents are either active, supportive, or not holding back. That's where the role model stand high. Many friends who were really not into sports or working out were basically from households where in some way the parents were holding their kids back from playing anything because the philos was that kids shouldn't play. They should "study- get good grades- go to college- make lots of money- and not be gay." Unfortunately for those same friends they have hypertension, diabetes, cirrosis, depression, and social retardation. For a parent not to hold their child back gives the child a chance to "play" things out and fitness just follows right behind.

From experience, holding back without education tends to cause much tension in families.

Anyone disagree?

I'm not sure what you mean ayla. I think that parents should play a huge role, motivating their kids and herding them towards sports or fitness training. For me, working out is the key to feeling good, and generally being successful. There is no way I could study or go to work if I wasn't working out all the time. I wish my parents would have pushed me more in this respect.

I was addressing the question of fitness. No real question on sports. BUT when you stop and think about parents who do play a huge role in getting their kids into sports- most of them are either

A: trying to live their dreams through their kid, whether the kid likes to play or not (good or not they still play).

B: hoping to gain a success through the success of their child in sport.

C: trying so hard for the kid to succeed in sport that other aspects of human social behavior and growth are neglected.

Hence why I would prefer a parent not to limit or hold their child back, but educate and support "free" activity of their children and all youth.

I don't know if I share the same view. Of all the kids in soccer where I live (it's huge percentage wise), most of the kids are in there for the right reasons. Again, I don't know what else people could do for 10 hours a week that has more of an impact on their life than getting some exercise.

at the very least they should make sure their kids are geting nutritious meals, especially around age 10-14 when their bodies are growing the most.

"I was addressing the question of fitness. No real question on sports. BUT when you stop and think about parents who do play a huge role in getting their kids into sports- most of them are either

A: trying to live their dreams through their kid, whether the kid likes to play or not (good or not they still play).

B: hoping to gain a success through the success of their child in sport.

C: trying so hard for the kid to succeed in sport that other aspects of human social behavior and growth are neglected.

Hence why I would prefer a parent not to limit or hold their child back, but educate and support "free" activity of their children and all youth. "

I find your view to be a tad bit pessimistic. Being a father of two (11 year old boy, 9 year old girl), I feel it's part of my duty as a parent to oversee and encourage them in sport and physical activity.

If I get something vicarious out of it, fine. The way you make it sound is as if it's all about the parents need for something (success, accomplishment, re living a "lost" dream) and possible neglect (push sports - neglect education)

You can't generalize like that. Many parents are "over the top", but not the majority. I see it at Soccer and Hockey games. However, the majority have a balance with it. This has been my experience.

My son needs a certain amount of encouragement to do well. He's always been a pickey eater, so we have to be on top of his diet for one. We also "insist" that he does cardio training - sport specific for hockey.

I run with him, and it's some of the best bonding time that we share. And it has improved his endurance on the ice, which he needed. He loves the sport. No forcing here. And his grades have been excellant this year in school.

Love, Balance, Encouragement, Discipline, Optimism.

My mom signed me up for t-ball at 5, soccer at 7, and swimming somewhere in between.

Parents let me do every sport I wanted, except football and karate (dad encouraged me to do judo, though, and I wrestled starting at 7).

My dad was always showing me bodyweight strength feats from about age 6-7 on, like see how many claps you can get on a push-up (he could do 4), how many pull-ups you can do, how far can you walk on your hands, how many one-legged squats can you do, etc.

my mom got me a hulk hogan workout set when i was 8,it had a jumprope,some dumbells,a barbell,a poster and a tape with 80s music and hulk hogan saying things like "OK KIDS TAKE YOUR VITAMINS AND HELP YOUR PARENTS WITH CHORES AROUND THE HOUSE!!!" i still have it