Over-protective helicopter parents responsible for increased child obesity

[MarchHare]

Surprise, surprise...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2447146/

Active play is disappearing from the lives of Canadian children, in part because of parents’ fear of letting kids play outdoors, according to a new report by Active Healthy Kids Canada.

In its annual report card released on Tuesday, Active Healthy Kids Canada gave a letter grade of F to both the physical activity levels and screen-based sedentary behaviours of today’s children and youth. According to the report, 46 per cent of Canadian kids get three hours or less of active play per week and spend nearly eight hours a day in front of screens.

The report also found 58 per cent of Canadian parents say they are very concerned about keeping their children safe and feel they have to be over-protective. Mark Tremblay, chief scientific officer of the organization, called this an “excessive fear of the outdoors.”

Kids who are allowed to play outside in their neighbourhoods may be in no more danger than children were a generation ago, but try telling that to many parents.

I really hate to sound like a crotchety old man, but when did this trend of obsessive over-protective partenting begin? As recently as my childhood (1980s), all the kids in the neighbourhood played outdoors for hours, climbing trees, exploring the woods, playing street hockey, riding our bikes, whatever. We were told to play outside after we got home from school and instructed to be home for dinner. The concept of an indoor, parental-organized (and supervised!) "play date" didn't even exist.

I've heard the argument that it's more dangerous for kids these days, but I suspect that's just the fear-inducing media blowing a few high-profile cases (e.g. Tori Stafford) completely out of proportion. Nobody has ever shown me any concrete crime statistics that show the rate of childhood abductions by strangers has increased at all since the 1950s. So why are today's helicopter parents subjecting their children to increased rates of obesity (and all the long-term negative health consequences that brings) to reduce the already miniscule chance of their child being kidnapped or otherwise harmed?

[Senator Clay Davis]

This sounds like a convenient cover-up for lousy parenting. Kids are more out of shape because they spend 4-10 hours a day in front of the computer or TV set or playing video games, whereas in the past didn't have these things to distract them. I think there are many statistics that show violent crime is lower now than it was in the 80s or 90s.

[photon]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

I've heard the argument that it's more dangerous for kids these days, but I suspect that's just the fear-inducing media blowing a few high-profile cases (e.g. Tori Stafford) completely out of proportion.

I think this kind of gets to the root of it.. I don't think it's high-profile cases blown out of proportion though, I think it's just a result of global media.

In the past if some kid in BC disappeared, someone in Alberta would probably never find out about it. If the kid died then it might make the national news or the newspaper.. and the further back you go in time the less you knew about areas outside your local area.

Now though within minutes of a kid disappearing there's an amber alert and parents across the country and globe know instantly.

So while the incidents of violent crime against kids probably hasn't changed significantly, being aware of violent crime probably has increased many orders of magnitude.

And humans are very poor at risk evaluation, at a gut level we probably evaluate the risk against our internal society size intuition (150 people) so the perceived risk probably has increased hugely.

It takes a specific effort to override your gut risk assessment.

The other factor in this that I don't know of is how many kids were actually harmed/killed by the environment in a "go out and play for the whole day" type situation. Anecdotally I know my parents' generation had a number of accidents and deaths due to such things that today would be considered a result of insufficient supervision and would be very serious against the parents.

Only takes losing one kid to drowning while they're out playing to radically change how the next generation in that family would parent.

[GGG]

Weight has much more to do with diet than it does with exercise. In order to lose 1 pound a week just from excercise you would have to run around 35 miles a week. Not a small amount. It is more like 80% diet and maybe 20% exercise.

All that said I think helicoptor parenting is overblown. Kids still play on the street everyday afterschool. I just think having choices means you aren't going to spend as much time outside. An hour of TV a day means 1 hour less time spent outside.

I would suspect that kids amount of activity is directly correlated with their parents level of activity and that based on society as a whole that the general trend in reduced activity levels is roughly the same in parents and in kids.

[CaptainCrunch]

I don't know if its as much helicopter parenting as it is lousy parenting.

Lets be honest, if a kid comes home from school and sits in front of a computer for four or five hours, his or her parents not only have a convientient way to get the kid out of their hair, but they brag to their friends about how good their little Billy or Becky is at "Puters". Little do they know that it takes no skill for them to hit the free pron sites, or load up World of Warcraft.

Parents are ok with their kids sitting in the basement for 4 hours playing on the Xbox cause it gives them peace and quiet to depressurize after work.

Right now in this age of I want to be the cool parent my kids can do what they want, or the T.V., Xbox, puter is the ultimate baby sitter, Parents are making kids fatter, dumber and less socially adept then they were 20 years ago.

The other problem is that parents have a sentiment that its a dangerous world out there and their precious babies shouldn't be exposed to this, but honesltly there's not a child molester in every neighbour hood, a Latino gang hanging out in the house down the street, and a drug dealer selling the X on the corner, parents have exageratted it in their mind to the point that its become mythic legend.

I went out to Toronto a couple of years ago and went out to my sisters farm. It was July and a absolutely perfect day, and my dad who was there, and my sister and her husband decided to go outside and chuck a kids football around (shockingly my day who's like 77 has an amazing arm and throws a great spiral for a guy that had never played the game in his life). Anyways my sister told her boys what we were doing (The kids are 7 and 14). The fourteen year old didn't want to play and on a really nice July night he sat inside the cabin and read a book, and my sister was ok with this. to add on this kid has no muscle whatsoever, he pulls memorized facts from books and then presents it like its a brilliant insight. He plays no sports, and when gym became optional he dropped it.

The other boy, the 7 year old wanted to play which was great. But the minute that the ball jammed one of his fingers he burst into tears, started wailing and ran to my sister and said he didn't want to play anymore and ran inside to play with his Ipod.

To be honest I was a little disgusted. I get that kids need to find their own way, but when I was growing up it was home after school to drop off your stuff, then in the winter you were playing road hockey til dinner which mom delayed til late, or went skating. In the summer we tore out of the house at 6 in the morning on our bikes with my mom yelling "Be back by sunset" after either giving us a bag lunch or a few bucks to feed ourselves, and we found a whole world to explore and play in with our friends. If we would have known about Calvinball we would have played that instead of pick up baseball or football.

Its not about parents being over protective its about parents being lazy a bit stupid and surrending to their kids to much.

Kids don't need to watch 4 hours or T.V. a night, or play video games or plunk away at the computers for all hours. Kids don't need to exchange a thousand text with their friend who lives 2 blocks away.

The Roman Empire collapsed because they became lazy and contented and moved away from being a driven society to being a hedonist society and they were basically bowled over by the lead hungry barbarians from the East. Its happening in the first world right now.

[Rathji]

I, for one, welcome our lead hungry barbarian overlord's fat kids.

[DownhillGoat]

Funny. Yesterday there was an article on CBC (IIRC) that claimed c-sections led to childhood obesity.

[Street Pharmacist]

Could it also have to do with many more kids growing up in inner cities/apartments with nowhere to go? I wouldn't let my kid out downtown either...

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Could it also have to do with many more kids growing up in inner cities/apartments with nowhere to go? I wouldn't let my kid out downtown either...

By an order of magnitude, there were more kids growing up in urban environments 40+ years ago then there are today. The mass exodus of young families moving to the suburbs began in the 1970s and hasn't let up.

[Lt.Spears]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

This sounds like a convenient cover-up for lousy parenting. Kids are more out of shape because they spend 4-10 hours a day in front of the computer or TV set or playing video games, whereas in the past didn't have these things to distract them. I think there are many statistics that show violent crime is lower now than it was in the 80s or 90s.

Pff, i spent endless hours playing Warcraft and Diablo 2 when i was a kid, i didnt grow up fat or anything.

Its more about parents not feeding their kids properly, along with balancing that play time with some exercise.

[Regular_John]

Lawn darts man, the day they banned lawn darts is when it all went to hell.

[Igottago]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

This sounds like a convenient cover-up for lousy parenting. Kids are more out of shape because they spend 4-10 hours a day in front of the computer or TV set or playing video games, whereas in the past didn't have these things to distract them. I think there are many statistics that show violent crime is lower now than it was in the 80s or 90s.

I don't know if its fair to just say its lousy parenting. Its a society wide and cultural thing. Parents themeselves are probably spending 8 hours a day in front of a screen. People are being conditioned to spend long hours in front of screens, not just to play video games, but to work, read, shop, and spend lots of time online. Add to that fast food diets with multi million dollar ad campaigns and its a recipe for an obese society. Kids just do what the adults do.

[Puppet Guy]

I'd like to know how many parents set an example for the kiddies and actually exercise themselves. It sounds simplistic, but having Mom or Dad go out and work up a regular sweat would go further in getting the kids outside than just having them say so.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

I really hate to sound like a crotchety old man, but when did this trend of obsessive over-protective partenting begin? As recently as my childhood (1980s), all the kids in the neighbourhood played outdoors for hours, climbing trees, exploring the woods, playing street hockey, riding our bikes, whatever. We were told to play outside after we got home from school and instructed to be home for dinner. The concept of an indoor, parental-organized (and supervised!) "play date" didn't even exist.

I feel like this is a very recent trend and has obviously trended proportional to the ease of access to technology. I'm 23 so I'm not far removed from "childhood". We didn't have a family computer until I was 12-13 and our allowed tuime on it was quite limited.

Video games, tv, movies, and even the toys these days have taken the imagination out of play time. I remember seeing a kids kitchen play-set that had literally everything a kitchen had. We used to play "mechanics" and pretended bunk beds were cars. I probably had more free reign from my parents to do what I wanted at ages 6-12 than I did in my teens. I'm so glad I barely missed being raised in this paranoid time.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by Puppet Guy

I'd like to know how many parents set an example for the kiddies and actually exercise themselves. It sounds simplistic, but having Mom or Dad go out and work up a regular sweat would go further in getting the kids outside than just having them say so.

This. I grew up playing tons of video games but I also played a lot of sports. My dad coached a few of my teams and practiced with me in a field near our house. My parents use to get me out bike riding on the weekends and take me skiing or skating in the winter. My dad even built a rink in my backyard so we'd have something to do. It's not helicopter parenting so much as it's lazy parenting. It's easier to let a kid play on a computer all summer then it is to spend time with them and do something active outside.

[The Yen Man]

I dunno, I just find it's a bit of a broad stroke that people paint parents with these days. Do kids have way more options these days to pass their time? Sure, but that's a generation thing. A lot of new parents that I know are pretty involved in making sure their kids are active in sports. Parents often take their kids to soccer, hockey, swimming, etc. And despite what people think, kids still go outside to play. At least, all the kids I've seen do anyways. I think it's a bit of a misconception that kids are just cooped up indoors all the time. They may not go out as much, but even growing up in the eighties and nineties, there were a lot of times when we did things indoors.

At the end of the day, most people probably think their generation was the best, and how they were raised is the best way to be raised. I think it's all subjective, and evolves as time goes by and societies change.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I feel like this is a very recent trend and has obviously trended proportional to the ease of access to technology. I'm 23 so I'm not far removed from "childhood". We didn't have a family computer until I was 12-13 and our allowed tuime on it was quite limited.

Video games, tv, movies, and even the toys these days have taken the imagination out of play time. I remember seeing a kids kitchen play-set that had literally everything a kitchen had. We used to play "mechanics" and pretended bunk beds were cars. I probably had more free reign from my parents to do what I wanted at ages 6-12 than I did in my teens. I'm so glad I barely missed being raised in this paranoid time.

I remember that my old man was just a freaking pack rat. One day he came home with a car full of wooden dowlings because they might come in handy one day.

So one summer day using the old table saw, and some hammers and nails we made an arsenal of swords out of these things then proceeded to have a medieval battle in a near by park where fingers were broken, people were stabbed in the sack (Only rule was that we weren't allowed to sharpen the end). One enterprising kid made a set of throwing knives which didn't stick in you but would pretty well knock you senseless.

When the old man got home every single dowling was gone, every kid in the neighbourhood was battered and bruised and limping, but he couldn't get mad when I described it as the best day ever.

He was kinda pissed that a bunch of pre teen kids were using his table saw without adult supervision though.

[Northendzone]

i think the leading cause of childhood obesity is kids being fat......

i think there are lots of different underlying factors the biggest of which is kids not having access to woodworking equipment to create medevil battle swords and whatnot......

[sketchyt]

This is what my brother, wife and 2 young daughters have:

3 iPads
2 iPhones
1 desktop computer
2 laptops
1 PS3, XBOX, and Wii
2 large screen TV's with full cable
2,343,432,978 assorted kids toys

Inside their fridge/pantry:

Pre-packaged processed meats
Pop
Ice Cream
Instant dinners
5,432,765,345 boxes of junk food

So yeah, they're gonna have some fat and part-######ed kids. It angers me to no end and I'm out of snide remarks and not-so-nice hints for them. We go out for dinner and out come the iPads for the kids. Heck, if I had that setup indoors when I was a kid there's no chance I would have ever gone outside.

My dementia-ridden dad seems to come out of his haze into pure clarity when he sees this because of pure rage. It's tragically hilarious.

[pylon]

Not to be that "back in the day guy".... ok, I'll have to be back in the day guy. , but "Less than 3 hours per week of active play?" Are you kidding me? We would bang that off on our bikes by noon when I was a kid.

I get times have changed, and everything seems to revolve around a computer screen. But even as a mid-thirties adult, I make sure I get at least 45 minutes to an hour of exercise a day. I think part of it is, if you are raised active, you like to stay active.

I guess this does kinda explain the pasty, doughey looking appearance of a lot of young adults I am noticing now now.