Hitch Fit Living Magazine Volume 1 July/August 2015 | Page 42

Families and especially children these days
are growing up in an environment
surrounded by screens and technology. You
essentially cannot even enjoy a family dinner
these days without a television in front of you
or a cell phone buzzing at you.
While this technology is not only
multifunctional, useful, brilliant in design and
super cool, it is becoming more and more
toxic to the health and wellbeing of our
families.
In my personal opinion, we are spending far
too much time in front of a screen of some
sort rather than being active. That combined
with the easy access to junk food, fast food
and far less physical education in schools
than what I recall growing up are creating a
childhood and parenthood health danger.
My purpose for writing this article is to motivate families to think outside the box and become active
together. Parents, let alone children, need to get involved whether it be in traditional sports training or in
nontraditional sports training. “Children glean many benefits from playing sports, including improved
fitness, better social and verbal interaction, increased self-esteem and confidence, improved physical selfperception and academic success (Lloyd et al. 2013).” Parents involved in fitness are less stressed, they
have more energy for these activities and are overall happier and healthier. The single best way to shift
the focus from this health epidemic to a more positive solution is by becoming more active as whole.
Getting families moving together will have a huge impact on overall health and keeping these activities
upbeat will allow both parents and children to fully engage with each other.