You've seen in my blog comments I've made about walking in my neighborhood. My normal walking route is GPS measured at 3.25 lovely miles. Its a pleasant place to walk and a safe place to walk.
I live on the main corner in our community and its the bus stop 6 times per day for school bus pickup. 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon for elementary, middle school and high school.
As many as 15 kids gather at the four way stop intersection at times. I've noticed, however, during my walks, that some of the kids are brought to the bus stop in their parents CARS!!!!
The furthest point any of these kids could possibly live from the intersection/bus stop is a quarter of a mile. One lousy lap around a typical school track. I'm not talking about inclement weather days. I'm talking about gorgeous weather days.
Hey parents, do your kid a favor and let them walk. If an old man who is overweight can walk 3 to 5 miles most days...your little cherub kid can too.
Hey, maybe this is the start of America getting into a new sport in the future. Sumo wrestling. We'll sure have enough fat folks to supply the sport with. Now get out there and go for a walk. Consider taking your kid with you.
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3 comments:
Sadly, it is probably more about the being abducted than fat. There was just a story, sadly, about a 12 year old girl being taken 800 yards from her front door. Her dad would usually meet her at the bus and that day got caught up with something. I get your point, though, and the High Schoolers start walking to the bus! What about kids who go to their basements, sit on the couch and play video games with their friends who are at home, in their basements and on their couches. I've had high school boys tell me they'd rather do that then go to their friend's houses. My younger son, who doesn't have Internet on his Xbox and can't play anything but T games told me yesterday that the games aren't two (or more) player unless through the internet. Talk about couch potatoes. They dont even get the exercise of walking to a friend's house. Obesity is only going to get worse unless we teach our kids to make time for movement!
I don't want kids to get abducted, but if the parents can sit with them in their cars while they wait for the bus(which is what happens in my neighborhood), then there is no reason the parents can't walk them to the bus stop. I agree with you Dan. If we don't teach kids to put exercise in their lives they will only blame their parents when they are obese adults. Everyone should exercise when they can... with the weather being so beautiful lately, I can't imagine why anyone would want to stay in the house. Besides, everyone can use more vitamin D!
I remember walking up that steep hill in our neighborhood to the bus stop as a kindergardener! I agree, we need to find small ways to incorporate exercise into our lives-like taking the stairs, parking further away from the door, or walking to the bus stop.
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