All in the Family: Working Out with Your Children

Last week I offered to babysit for my two nephews while my sister-in-law ran some last minute holiday errands. The boys, 4 and 5, are a pleasure and I enjoyed spending time with them. Since my own children are teenagers, however, I forgot how much energy is needed to keep up with preschoolers. As a matter of fact, I didn't have it in me to workout that evening as I had planned. This got me thinking back to the days when my children were small and my husband was often traveling for work. What was that like? In a nutshell, it was exhausting!

As mothers, women tend to put everyone's needs before their own. Often the first area of our lives that suffer is our fitness needs. But what kind of message is this sending our children? If we want our children to lead healthy lives, we need to be good role models. As my children were growing up, this was often a challenge because my husband routinely had to meet with out-of-town clients and wouldn't return home until the kids were in bed for the night. When they were down for the night, I wanted nothing more than to collapse on the sofa and relax for a while. The best way that I found to balance fitness with child care was to make it a family affair.

In the warm weather, we routinely loaded up the stroller and walked to the park to play. The two mile round trip helped me burn a lot of calories. Once we arrived at the park, I played right along with the kids. Pushing children on the swings, playing tag, and climbing the monkey bars was a workout in itself. At home we played ball and frisbee, rode bikes, skated and jumped on the pogo stick.

Image from pro.corbis.com

The cold weather didn't stop us from being active either. My children loved raking leaves with me and jumping in the piles. Of course this meant more raking, but the kids enjoyed it. When it snowed, the kids had child-sized snow shovels to help me with clearing the driveway. They loved
building snowmen and snow forts and working up a sweat with a snowball fight. On occasion we would visit an indoor playground called "The Discovery Zone". There were tubes to crawl through, ball pits to navigate and the much loved "moon jump". We all needed a nap after a day there! When the weather was too cold to play outside, we turned on the music and danced. My kids were partial to Christmas music. One of my favorite memories is watching my baby girl bobbing up and down to "Sleigh Ride" even though she wasn't yet walking.

Image from www.onthesnow.com

As my children got older, ice skating was a favorite past time. (Remember this post about hosting an ice skating party?) We were fortunate to have an indoor ice skating rink nearby our home that was open year round. Rollerblading, swimming and biking were some other activities that we could do together. Incorporating activity in our daily lives wasn't difficult, it just took a little creativity. I needed to find activities that both of my children enjoyed. An added bonus was that the kids slept so soundly after a fun-filled day of activity.

Image from www.greenecoservices.com

Nowadays, there are workout dvd's created specifically for children. Why not try one of these right along with the kids?

Denise Austins' Fit Kids, find it here for $4.99.

Billy Banks, Tae Bo Kicks, Available at Amazon.com, $12.99.

Including your children in your fitness routine is beneficial for many reasons. Mainly, you are spending quality time together while modeling healthy behavior. Do you make fitness a family activity?

*You may want to check your local public library for fitness DVD's before purchasing. It's always good to try before you buy!