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The Healthy Lifestyle Wars
4 Steps to Convincing Your Child That Fitness Is Fun
By Mark Stackpole
Lianne Randolph and her husband, Christopher Kelley, are lawyers in Oakland, Calif. As the parents of two boys, Seth, 4, and Jack, 1, they have male family fitness a priority in their busy schedule. "My parents were very sedentary, so I have made a conscious effort not to make the same mistakes they did," Randolph says.
Several years before they had children, Randolph and Kelley purposely chose a house in a neighborhood with "walkable streets and nearby stores" to promote traveling on foot rather than by car. They are very concerned about the level of physical activity that their children get. "We stopped using the stroller for Seth as soon as possible," Randolph says. "Sometimes Dad needs to carry him on his shoulders, but not until he walks for awhile. He can walk for two or three miles on his own."
Not only does the family hike, swim and bike ride on a regular basis, they spend time scheduling bigger activities in advance to make sure they don't miss any opportunities. Randolph has found that putting together a weekend calendar "helps us see the big picture and make sure we are not getting caught up in an endless loop of weekend chores."
No matter what the time of year, Randolph and her family are committed to making the most out of their opportunities for healthy fun. "We have gone car camping, and we will have a few weekends set aside to go cross-country skiing in Taoe," she says. "I hate getting to the end of a season and feeling like we didn't do anything to take advantage of it."