Parents are their own worst enemies when it comes to encouraging their children to be more active, according to research, and they obviously need help to get their kids moving.
Apparently, most parents underestimate the time their kids are engaged in physical activity. When kids between the ages of six and 11 years were hooked up to pedometers, it turns out they were engaged in moderate to vigorous activity for 63 minutes a day, compared to the 105 minutes of movement predicted by their parents.
And parents thought their kids were in front of a video screen for two and a half hours when, in fact, they were sedentary for 7.6 hours, although screen time didn't account for the entire sedentary period.
This trend is not new and community programmers in the Tri-Cities have been looking for ideas about how to keep kids busy. More available and accessible after-school programming - involving activity and movement - and cheaper recreation would help.
What do you think?Should schools offer after-school supervision of activities at taxpayers' expense? Vote in our online poll.
