Exercise instead of Gaming

“Can we watch television, mummy?” I hear this question all the time, because Zoe (7) and Noah (4) don’t get tired asking it. And except for the week-ends when we have our movie nights, my standard answer is No. Which leads to the second question: “Can we play with you then?” Of course we can play together. Sometimes we play memory. I don’t like that game in particular but in secret I hope that it will be good for my brain and that I will stop forgetting everything. “Or can we do sports?”, this is Zoe asking. Noah climbs everything and everyone he sees anyways! In summer we all jump on our big trampoline in the garden and these days, we skip the rope. Sports offers such a great opportunity for kids to build up their self confidence. You should have seen Zoe after she had managed to skip the rope 20 times. She was about to burst with happiness and pride! And of course I cheered like she just hit the jackpot and we danced around in delight. Noah prefers to be the cool crossfitter. He tells us to hold the rope low so he can crawl under it and then we should hold it high so he can jump to touch it.

Both of them cannot get enough of sports and THEY ARE NOT EVEN AWARE THAT THEY WORK OUT, to them it is just having a good time.

I do take my kids to swimming and gymnastics, but even though their teachers are great, it is very different from when we play Hide and Seek on the playground or race to our car the three of us. I am Zoe’s role model. She grows up seeing me with a sports bag, jumping around with them and having lots of fun while doing it. Noah’s hero is definitely his father whom he observes closely. When he spears the fork into his meat with determination he says: “I am going to eat lots because I want to become big like daddy!”

Zoe has also understood the correlation between eating and exercise. The other day she had eaten up all her dinner including the mountain of veggies I had piled on her plate and I had given her the chocolate bar with caramel she likes so much. Then she went to the living room and called me. “Mummy can I have dessert?” “You just had!”, I replied. Zoe quickly moved to the edge of the sofa and did some dips: “But mummy look, I do sports. I am not going to be fat!” she declared. What shall I say… I love her to bits!