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by Tiffany Capuano

Decatur mom Carol Norton has tried everything to entice her two sons, ages 9 and 7, to go outside and be active. It’s harder than she ever imagined. “When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was go outside and play, but for my kids, that feels like punishment,” she says. “What’s so different now?”

Norton is not alone. Many parents are finding that making kids active is a daunting task. Once outdoors, Norton says her kids are great about running around, but she has to participate for them to stay engaged.

Motivating Kids

“I want the boys to be active without me having to be the bad guy who unplugs whatever they are doing,” says Norton. “I want them to want to play. But how do I teach them to go play?”

JD Clockadale, founder of The Fit Kids Training Co. in Atlanta, spends most of his time with kids, figuring out what motivates them to want to be physically active. “It’s not about forcing them to exercise,” he says. “It’s about understanding what motivates and drives a child.”

Often it is parents who lay on the mental anguish for overweight kids, he says. Parents come to him asking why their inactive child is lazy. He points out that it’s just that their child may not be motivated by the same things as adults.

“Some kids just don’t like to exercise,” says Clockadale, who works with the emotional frustration many kids have when they come to him for help. “I learn what they care about and what they want to do. We want them to have fun, too.”

Clockadale says family behavior often has to be modified for overweight kids. Exercise shouldn’t be forced, and activities should be ones that an inactive child enjoys doing, even if the parents don’t.

Turning inactive kids into active kids isn’t easy, say experts. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture all recommend that children and teens get physical activity for at least 60 minutes each day.

Structured vs. Unstructured

Physical activity means more than just plain old exercise. Washing the dog, raking leaves and playing games in the backyard are all things that get kids moving. Short bouts of 10 or 15 minutes of activity that add up to one hour each day are perfectly fine too, say fitness experts.

Organized sports, like soccer or baseball, aren’t the only activities that count as exercise. Clockadale once had a mother pull her son from a rock climbing session because it wasn’t a “real sport,” he says. She preferred that her son play football instead.

“Unstructured activity is better than highly structured activity,” says Karen Miller-Kovach, chief scientist at Weight Watchers International. She believes it is a more sustained activity when not organized.

So what counts as physical activity? Health and fitness experts say anything that gets your child moving. Even passive exercise, like planting flowers or cleaning your room, is better than just sitting around and decreases the chance of being overweight.

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