Amid full-time jobs, financial worries, and lack of time, many parents feel lost about how to keep their kids active and fit. But exercise is important—not only for weight control, but for helping kids handle stress, avoid diseases like diabetes and heart disease, feel better about themselves, and learn better, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. And being a fit family doesn’t have to add stress or break the bank.

Set aside time

Los Angeles mother Turusew Gebedu-Wilson works full time, so, “it’s mostly evenings and weekends when we go to the park or find safe streets to walk on for about half an hour,” she says. Exercising with her two boys “is great because they’re not fidgety, and their energy gets channeled through activities. Finding time to be active together is always a challenge, but we have to work around it. Being active doesn’t have to be an expensive activity or trip to the gym. Keeping fitness fun and easy gives them a foundation to stay healthy.”

Steve Baldwin, a Long Beach father, follows a similar routine. “Lately the pattern has been that I get home from work around five, the kids play in the backyard before dinner, we eat dinner, then we all go for a walk or bike ride around seven. It’s cooler, and the kids love to get out of the house.” Baldwin, who works full time and has two side jobs, says he has two rules about kids’ fitness activities: “It has to be outside and the kids have to have fun.”

Be active indoors

For Oakland mom Trina Rockefellar, “being active indoors is a safety thing. . . .The area we live in isn’t one you’d want to walk around in. There are unleashed dogs and unsafe people out.”

To keep her family healthy, she has come up with some simple indoor activities. “My daughter and I do a Tai Bo video together. Also, we have an Airwalker and my daughter and I challenge each other on it. When my kids are doing their homework, I do the Airwalker. They can ask me anything or tell me about their day. I don’t realize it when half an hour has gone by. We also turn the radio on while I’m making dinner and we dance in the kitchen.”

Rockefellar made the move to be more active after learning about the problems that Type 2 Diabetes could cause her children. “As an African American woman, my kids are at the highest risk. We (parents) need to look at what we cook and learn what we need to replace. If parents don’t know what they’re doing wrong, they’ll continue to do the same things.”

Find free or cheap activities

Susan Dworaks, a Naglee Park mother, hopes to teach her kids the value of physical activity by making fun activities in their time together. “We create obstacle courses. At the beach, I’ll make a zig-zag course for them in the sand. I draw circles they have to hop in, and lines that they have to toss stones over. Then they make a course for me.” Dworaks also tries to keep her kids’ bikes and helmets near the door, where they can easily get to them. This makes it easier for them to fit in a 20-minute bike ride with their mom before school. “You don’t have to be in amazing shape to exercise,” she says. “Just show your kids that you care about it. Just get out there and do it.”

Be a role model

Cindy Zedeck, director of the Packard Pediatric Weight Control Program, encourages parents to model healthy behavior by incorporating physical activities during family events. “Have a family soccer game on the Fourth of July or an annual volleyball game. When activities are part of a tradition, kids will look back and see a very active childhood. They’ll be more likely to include those behaviors in their own lives.”

Bruce Cohen is enthusiastic about bike-riding, but his 11-year-old son was not interested. “I’d ask him to come with me on a Saturday bike ride and he’d prefer to stay home and watch television,” Cohen says. But then Cohen enrolled his son in a reward-based fitness program. Now the boy has started riding with his dad. “It’s a great family experience. He enjoys cycling with me. I’ve been so proud of him. As a parent, I’m happy to see him look and feel better and healthier.”

See the benefits

Trina Rockefellar says she and her kids have become closer since spending more time being active together. “We have concern for each other. As a parent, I was concerned about my kids, but now they turn around and care for their dad and me.”

The key to family fitness is simply to stay active in the way that works best for you, be it jumping rope in the backyard, dancing in the living room, or taking a karate class. The important thing is to get up and move. “It’s our job as parents to keep our kids active,” says San Jose mother Brenna Broadnax. “We have to go out of our way to see that it happens.”

Ideas for easy family fitness activities

• Park 10 minutes away from where you’re going for an added walk
• Turn on music during chores and encourage kids to move around and dance
• Blow up balloons and play indoor volleyball
• Make a week’s worth of grab-and-go snacks (like sliced fruits or vegetables) on Sunday night
• Hike and swim in community parks and pools
• Make an indoor obstacle course that involves jumping and skipping
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• Get bubbles, balls, and other low-cost outdoor toys at a discount store
• Get dance or exercise videos or DVDs and do them with your kids.

More ideas:

• 101 Family Fitness Activities, Get Up/Get Out, Detroit Public TV, www.dptv.org/gugo/activities/101.shtml
  (link removed)

• 99 Tips for Family Fitness Fun, Shape Up America, http://www.shapeup.org/publications/99.tips.for.family.fitness.fun/

• Healthy Kids, Healthy Families, US Centers for Disease Control, http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/
  physicalactivity/guidelines.htm

• Family Fitness: Getting Active Indoors, FamilyFun.com, http://familyfun.go.com/games/
  healthy-fun/feature/ffun0106family-fitness

• It’s Time to Play (for kids), KidsHealth.org, http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/fit/what_time.html

(Resources in Spanish on Spanish version of article)

Extra resources from the Children’s Advocate bulletin (updated 9-06)

• Dance, Turn, Hop, Learn! offers activities for preschoolers related to animals, seasons, colors, and shapes. Helps build large and fine motor skills, as well as social and learning skills. $23. By Connie Bergstein Dow, available from RedLeaf Press, (800) 423-8309, summary online at http://www.redleafpress.org/
  productdetails.cfm?PC=948

• Dropping the Ball, from California Center for Public Health Advocacy, finds that half of California schools don't provide the required 200 minutes of PE every 10 days for elementary school students. Online with data by school district at http://www.publichealthadvocacy.org/
  droppingtheball.html

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