‘My Kids Hate the Great Outdoors’

There are days when getting outside, getting some sun, and getting any exercise at all for ourselves is a challenge. So how do we turn around and inspire (or require) an unmotivated, lazy child to get out and get moving, too — especially during the winter months?

“We did notice that when we were having a well dug and the excavator severed the phone line that served our dial-up internet service, all the kids in the house suddenly got up and left,” said Anne Gross Beal, a mother in South Dakota.

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Now, years later, she told LifeZette, “My son controls the router in his house. It’s amazing how effective it is.”

Cutting off your kids’ internet service may certainly help them get up and do something besides just sit there — but it’s nice to find activities they actually want to do as well.

“Ski lessons are fun and teach them a lifetime sport,” said Liz Henry, who lives in the rural town of Dane, Wisconsin. “Photography is great, too. You give them a decent camera to take their own pictures, then slip hikes in so that they can go and get their own perfect pics. We did all these things with our sons. They didn’t realize they had a choice to be active or not.”

Parents are their children’s most influential teachers, emphasized Wendy Rohin, a pediatric physical therapist from Boise, Idaho.

“If I eat healthfully, my children will see that it makes me feel good, and are more likely to eat what I’m eating. If I sit on the couch and ignore my children while obsessing over Facebook likes, then my children will think it’s good or OK to be glued to a screen all day without any human interaction,” Rohin noted.

“It’s the same for fitness. ‘Families that play together stay together.'”

Related: Social Media Worries for Your Kids? Put Your Own Phone Down First

Rohin believes that if we don’t do a better job of promoting exercise as a way of life, overweight kids will continue to be sedentary and gain weight — and the childhood obesity epidemic will only get bigger.

“Social media technology in general has made our society more sedentary. We used to go meet our friends for a hike, or a game of tennis. Now we just send them a picture on Facebook with non-committal message of ‘Let’s get together soon!'” Rohin added.

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Her favorite tactics to encourage movement on a cold winter’s day (or any day, quite honestly) are worth deploying on your own troops:

1.) It has to be fun.
For some kids, that means it has to be competitive. For the types of kids who are not competitive by nature, the activity can be more of a team project. You want your child to laugh and smile and ask to do it again the next day.

2.) It needs to involve kids in the planning. 
You don’t want to force children to participate against their wishes, of course. But maybe they can choose which park they want to go to for frisbee golf. Maybe they get to choose a snowman or a snow fort. Let them make the rules of the competition, or lead the team in the project.

Related: How Unfit Kids Could Compromise Our Nation

3.) It needs to boost kids’ self-esteem.
When adults are silly and clumsy and make mistakes, children get the message it’s OK to be less than perfect. Positive phrases and encouragement go a long way toward how children perceive their abilities in any particular activity. “Good job” has no meaning these days. Try instead, “That was cool! How did you do that? I want to try it,” or “I like the way you did…”

Competing against or shaming children for a lack of abilities will certainly not promote an active lifestyle. They’ll go back to the couch and do something they’re good at, in private … like more video games.