How Do Kids Do the Healthy Thing?
David Murray
| 2 min read
I have two nephews.
They’re twins and are almost 4 years old. I’ve never seen two human beings with so much energy in all my life, and if there was some way I could harness their power without alarming my sister I would. One day while we were playing in my parent’s backyard, one of them did a swan dive to the ground, a barrel roll and jumped up to throw a ball he had tucked in his jacket.
At the time I could only imagine me attempting such a feat and witnessing my entire body shattering into a million pieces.
When I think back, I was pretty active as a kid.
My mom made a point of making sure I spent as much time as possible outside. We had a large backyard and woods to play in. There was no shortage of things to do. I would ride my bike around the neighborhood which was one big circle and see how many times I could “race the track” before exhaustion set in. When I got older I played soccer and continued that until high-school.
Then video games entered the picture.
And as you can guess, my levels of activity dropped significantly, although I will argue my eye hand coordination is probably somewhere in the “super human” category. However, looking back I do see the home entertainment system the entry way to my unhealthy lifestyle. When I look at my nephews and see all the technology at their disposal, I grow concerned. They love playing on the computer and on my iPhone – Angry Birds Star Wars is a big hit, and I wonder what my sister will have to do to make sure they don’t end up as couch potatoes like their uncle did.
Kids health and wellness is a topic we like to focus on here.
It’s a passion point for us, and we have several programs across the state that help educate students on healthy living and better ways to take care of themselves. Recently, we asked Michigan students to send us a video of how they plan on living a healthy lifestyle for our Make the Play for Healthy Habits campaign. We received some creative entries and it showed that being active is still an important part of being a kid.
We determined five finalists and your vote is needed in determining the winner. Take a look at these clever videos and cast your vote here.
These kids, like my nephews, make me feel lazy!
Photo credit: hoyasmeg
