Here is something every American parent should think about:
Children need 60 minutes of active and vigorous play every day to grow up to a healthy weight.(source) If this sounds like a lot, consider that 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 ½ hours to using entertainment media including TV, computers, video games, cell phones and movies in a typical day, and only a third of high school students get the recommended levels of physical activity.
I never grew up with "recommended levels of activity." My parents had a very simple rule: "After homework, get lost. Don't come back until it gets dark." Being old school Caribbean folk, they believed that children had no business around the home during daylight hours unless they were doing chores or homework. So, I ran. I climbed. I jumped. I wrestled. I went from park to park. I went to the Boys Club on Bedford Avenue to pretend I was Bruce Lee or Silver Fox. Of course, I got into my share of fights and best befriending that occured shortly thereafter. I remember when, after much pleading, I received my first Atari. My father considered it a talisman of Satan, as he didn't believe it was healthy for a child to spend so much time sitting and staring. No matter. Whenever he felt I was playing too much, he'd simply turn it off and tell me to get out. Forget about television. We had one, and it was his.
Today, things are very different. With the rise of things like the "play date" (a term I find awful) and children with schedules that read like a presidential campaign calendar, sitting has become more common than moving. With school budgets in crisis, athletics and recess activities have been cut substantially. Boys and Girls clubs all over the country have closed for lack of support. With both parents working, it is harder and harder for children to do what seemed so natural to me: go outside and play. The Kaiser Family Foundation notes that total media use among 8-18 year-olds increased 43% from 1999 to 2009. All this is leading to an epidemic in childhood obesity.
Childhood obesity is particularly troubling because the extra pounds often start children on the path to health problems that were once confined to adults, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Childhood obesity can also lead to poor self-esteem and depression.
One of the best strategies to reduce childhood obesity is to improve the diet and exercise habits of your entire family. Treating and preventing childhood obesity helps protect the health of your child now and in the future.
First Lady Michelle Obama is using her platform to tackle this problem. Let's Move has an ambitious goal: to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation. Her campaign isn't just about healthy eating at home and at school. It is about helping children become more physically active. This is something I'm passionate about. As some of you know from the About page, one of my favorite charities is the Police Athletic League. PAL did so much for me as a young boy, I don't have the space here to tout it's manifold benefits. I can say that the Let's Move campaign is the best thing for children I've seen in a long time. Let's Move provides help for parents in making sure children get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. This need not be organized play like team sports. Something as simple as running and jumping in a playground or backyard can make a world of difference in a child's health, attitude, and mental acuity.
This isn't just about children's health. This is about the future of this country, believe it or not. None of the changes that we advocate for the next generation's benefit will mean a thing if our population becomes even more sedentary, slothful, and unhealthy. Our ancestors had the benefit of physical work as a part of normal, everyday life. That preparation for an adult life of hard work and focus was built with the idea that children needed strong bodies to build strong minds. Because of our economic and social circumstances, the time children spend doing something as simple as playing outside is disappearing. We have to do better and we can do better. I believe we should all be proud our First Lady has tackled an issue that will benefit the lives of our children just as much as legislative fixes. Healthy, active children, more often than not, become healthy and active adults. That is exactly what we need to make America a better place.