Is This the Year for Your Child?

We're bombarded these days with news stories about how overweight our nation is becoming. It's undeniable. As adults, we're responsible for our personal choices when it comes to diet and exercise, good, bad or indifferent. But as parents, we're also responsible for the choices we make on behalf of our kids. And what parent doesn't want the very best for his or her children, both now and for the rest of their lives?

It's hard to believe, but school resumes in just a few short weeks. Soon, we'll be shopping for back-to-school supplies, bringing our kids to meet-the-teacher day, and other annual rituals. But what about school transportation? Many of you are "bussers" and so the transportation question has probably already been answered for your kids. Distance or dangerous intersections may eliminate walking or biking as options. However, many of you are "walkers," living within a relatively short distance from your neighborhood school. If so, how are your kids getting to school this year? Before you reflexively answer, "Why, I'm driving them, of course!," stop and give some thought to the following statistics:

• In 1969, 42 % of all children 5 to 18 years of age walked or biked to school and 87 % of children 5 to 18 years of age who lived within one mile of school walked or biked to school. You were probably one of them!
• By 2001, 16 % of all children 5 to 18 years of age walked or biked to school and 63 % of children 5 to 18 years of age who lived within one mile of school walked or biked to school.
• 28% of Chicago area children are considered obese; Illinois places 4th in the nation for childhood obesity - not a good thing.
• More than 37 % of Chicago area children are considered overweight.
• Children born today may not outlive their parents due to preventable, overweight-related illnesses.

Safety is of course the No. 1 concern, and every parent has to answer that question for their kids. However, DO stop and think about it! Are your kids older now and able to safely get back and forth without you along. Are there other kids they can walk or bike with to make it safer and more fun? Are you doing them a disservice by reinforcing a car-dependent mindset? What about the importance of helping them to learn to walk or bike to where they're going instead of always looking to you for a ride everywhere? Are you possibly trading off their future physical health and development of good lifelong habits against your well-intended desire to drive them to school each day?

Not long ago, children routinely got around their neighborhoods on foot or by bicycle, often traveling to and from school in this way. This is no longer the case. The decline in walking and bicycling to school is dramatic.

It takes about five to ten minutes for children to walk a quarter of a mile or bicycle an entire mile. Walking or bicycling to and from school is an easy way for children to get a significant chunk of the recommended 30 minutes per day of physical activity which all children need.

Exposure to nature and time for free outdoor play can have multiple health benefits including stress reduction, relief of ADHD symptoms in children, and increased cognitive and motor functioning.

Just think about it!