I won’t run for just anyone

I read this really cool blog post from Kat the other day where she talked about how she had watched her parents being active throughout her childhood which in turn had instilled an unbreakable fitness habit for their entire family.

It reiterated to me how important it is to lead by example. Although James and I come from completely different backgrounds and even have completely different reasons as to why we want our kids to be active we are both in agreement about the importance of laying a solid fitness foundation for both of our kids.

I come from a “sporting family”, when my brother and I were little we would be dragged along to watch my Mum play netball, my Dad play rugby and both of our parents to play badminton. As my little (in age only) brother Bryce and I got older our parents would shuttle us around to various athletic meets (where Bryce would win everything and I would participate) and eventually we both moved into racket sports (once again where Bryce would win everything and I would participate). I’ve always been the brains to his brawn.

James on the other hand had more of a “needs must” venture into fitness – in short he lived in the middle of nowhere and had to bike a million miles (probably in barefeet and through snow when he gets around to telling our kids about “his childhood”) and when he was in his teens James decided it would be awesome to learn how to surf in the sub antarctic temperatures of the Cornwall sea! Which I guess is fortuitous because I have always thought surfer boys were hot. 😉

James and I both carried on a living relatively active lifestyles, in fact even when I was at my heaviest I was still playing competitive sports so our kids have grown up seeing both their Mum and Dad being active and trying new things even though we may not be good at them, which is something I’m trying (somewhat in vain) to teach “Miss I don’t want to go to (yoga, hula hoops, dance, gymnastics) class, till I’m good at it”.

James would prefer that they become surfers and move into playing “actual sports” I don’t care what they do as long as it gets them moving and is not cricket, because it takes ALL day but until the time comes when they come home and ask to play a certain sport I’m content with keeping them active through play, the bonus is that it’s free and I get a workout too. There are not many people I will voluntarily run or jump rope for and both of them came out of my tummy.

Parenting = doing things you hate because it’s good for your kids.

Till next time