Exercising Parents are Great Role Models

[Soosan]

I have three children, ages 11, 8 and 3. They know that my exercise time is very important to me and I've always felt I'm setting a good example for them (the best way to teach).

I was not athletic as a child and neither is my 11-yr-old son, who can get discouraged at times. I tell him stories from my "unathletic childhood," but that now I'm much more fit and strong than most of my peers because I make exercise a priority. I stress that fitness is more important in life than athletic ability. He seems encouraged by this and I'm curious to see how he will take to fitness when he's older.

My 8-yr old son, who enjoys gymnastics and soccer, is more athletic and sometimes does a yoga tape with me.

I bought my 3-yr-old daughter "Elmocize" yesterday and she was so excited to have her own workout video and did it twice already! (For those who are curious, it's not 30 minutes of pure exercise, but rather segments from Sesame Street which talk about the importance of exercise in a child-friendly way, interspersed with fun fitness movements, e.g., "The Benny-Hop.")

Anyway, to all of you exercising parents, hats off to you for setting such a wonderful example that will (hopefully) serve your children well throughout their lives!

 

[Carol122201]

Susan that Elmocize tape sounds adorable!! I agree setting an example by exercising and practicing healthy habits is a great gift we can give our children!

Carol

 

[kgravel]

Susan,

I love hearing about the little ones and their exercising adventures. Its great to encourage them to enjoy themselves and be fit, especially when they can get frustrated wanting to keep up with everybody else.

My 3 yr old DD also enjoys Elmocize! But, she enjoys "Exercising with Cathe!" better. She begs to go to my exercise room and put in a Cathe DVD, then proceeds to jump up and down on my step, and even throws punches!

It may be going too far however. The other day she went to my in-laws restaurant w/DH and the waitress asked her where Mommy was -- she announced to the whole restaurant that I was home exercising and proceeded to demonstrate some of her 'moves'. LOL!

Kim

 

[lisaLD]

My younger son (5 as of last week) likes to watch me exercise, and will sometimes grab my 1 and 2 lb dumbbells and try to exercise along with me. Now that I think of it, the 1 lb dumbbells were actually purchased because my 9 year old son wanted them, when he was around 3. If my younger son is mad at me, and feels that I need to lose a privilege, he tells me "no exercise!"

Both my kids love my stability ball, and one of the presents I bought my 5 year old for his birthday was a kids yoga kit from Gaiam, with a bright yellow sticky mat, a video and stickers. We did the video together on Saturday. My 9 year old was watching me do some of the biceps portion of S&H T&B over the weekend, and was asking me what weight I was using. He commented that it looked like the weight work was easy for Cathe! I said that it probably was somewhat for her, because that's what she does for a living. He later did some of the ab work along with me.

My older son asks me why I like to exercise so much. In responding to him, I focus on the improvement in my asthma. He also has asthma. I tell him that up until I was in my mid twenties, I exercised in some way or another, and I basically never had a problem with asthma. Then, I started grad school at night, and stopped exercising, and didn't go back to it until my mid thirties. During that time, my asthma became a real problem, but it improved dramatically within a month of starting to exercise again, which at the time, was just walking and weight work with light dumbbells. I tell him that I don't want to go back to the point where asthma was a problem, so I will always make exercise a priority.

Right now, both my sons like to swim, and my oldest is a very good swimmer. They also like to rollerblade.