Today my eldest son (11yrs) had to see the Dr. as he had suffered with chest pains at school today Turns out it's muscular, (aided by doing stunts on his bike and crashing a few day ago!), so nothing that a bit of rest wont fix, anyway, the Dr. was very suprised & pleased at my sons fitness, (indicated by his resting heart rate) and said it was obvious from his level of fitness that he is extremely active!

My boys play at the bottom of our cul-de-cac every day, a combination of football & bike riding mostly, there is a large grassy area and an old orchard that they can play in (the orchard is used as a scenic walk, not an orchard). They are usually out there 4hrs per day on school days and 8hrs+ per day on weekends & school holidays, the rain doesn't allways put them off either!

I am so glad they get to be this active as it obviously has tremendous health benefits as well as helping thiem develop thier own social skills :)
I am a proud mum today :-)

>I am a proud mum today

And quite right too! The more children who are outside playing freely and keeping fit, the better the future for all of us.

This is so good to hear :-)
Unfortunately, in this day and age parents would rather have thier kids inside playing a video game so they know where their kids are than encourage them to go out and play.
Im against making health fitness and exercise a big issue for children. There are far too many programmes on tv harping onto children. If they have fun outside with their mates and eat a balanced diet then they reap the benefits and rewards.  I know of a child who saw on tv that certain food were bad and it bothered him so much he stopped eating. he lost 3 stone and had to go into hospital to be put on IV. We shouldnt be doing this to our children, LET THEM BE CHILDREN!!

> Unfortunately, in this day and age parents would rather have thier kids inside playing a video game so they know where their kids are

That is a massive generalisation .  

Very big generalisation !!! As much as I would like my children to play out in the street I live on a main road which is busy so I dont get that option....my son does sit in and play the wii and what not but hes very active in other ways, he has football training on tuesdays and a game on sundays and goes aikido twice a week and also plays golf in fair weather at the weekends and my daughter does a dance class twice a week and trampolining. We also take the dogs for a long walk in the evening together when its nice weather.

I also take into consideration that the children from my sons school that are allowed to play out tend to seem a lot more in a rush to grow up and act older than they really are as they tend to socialise with kids older than themselves.

They can play out at my mums because she lives in a cul de sac but 9 times out of 10 they are happy to go into next doors garden and play with their kids.

I remember all the street games and it amazes me now how everyone seemed to know all the rules-and some were complicated,especially the skipping rhymes and steps.I don't ever remember being actually taught any of the handclapping rhymes either,or the rules for the different ways of playing marbles.We just seemed to absorb it somehow.We were out all day when we could and in the summer i always used to be as brown as a berry,except for my feet and ankles where my socks came up to.We were all lean as well,partly because our food portions were nothing like they are today,partly because we thought nothing of walking everywhere.I played cricket with my 4 brothers and the other lads from the neighbourhood,and was a scary fast bowler.Of course the number of cars entering our street was practically nil so we could spread out.

> I remember all the street games and it amazes me now how everyone seemed to know all the rules-and some were complicated

Up untill I was 10yrs old we weren't allowed to play in the street, my mum wouldn't let us, so we had to play in the garden :( Mum left when I was 10, so dad got to decide what we could do and he let us out to play in the street :)
Yay!! I remember some of the street games. There used to be quite a gang of us that would gather in our street to play.
Thats what the summer holidays were all about, playing with all the other kids in the street.
The game that everybody used to join in with was 999 (I think it has different names in different places), where somebody would be 'it' and had to count while every body else hid. The people hiding had to try to make it back to 'base' without being caught, if they were seen they could be 'captured' by the one who was 'it' running back to base & calling thier name, they would than have to stay at 'base'. If a hider made it back to base they could shout '999 release all prisoners & myslef', which would free any captives :) I can't remeber how the game ended, I think it would just carry on & on & on with a few changes in the one that was 'it', untill we all had to go home!!! ('Ohhh, pleaaaase dad, let us stay out for just 10 more minutes, pleaaaasee' :) ).

We also spent many a day in the woods, making 'dens' and getting covered in mud!

Ahh, summer holidays when we were kids, such a great time, care-free and full of friends & fun :-)

It is a really hard balance when they are younger to get a balance of freedom to go out and explore or play.
There is certaihnly a generation of kids that no longer get the freedom to play that we all did(even here).
I was feeling just this morning how lucky my children have been/are.
Just yesterday after school my daughter was with friends on the beach for a picnic and final gathering (one girl is leaving to live on the mainland), she was grumbling that her knee ached a bit as the waves had been so high she been knocked down a few times. It occured to me that wave jumping and swimming for a couple of hours is fab exercise. We are so lucky.
Even though they still dont have half the freedom we did.
Karen

That was called reilevo round here n when you got to the base you shouted relievo relievo 123! I dont have kids, but im active myself, into the dogs n horse riding, skiing and mountain boarding is the new thing. So when i do have them i think they would be dragged with me everywhere and help out with the dogs (and hopefully chickens, a goat some cows and pigs lol) in the future and have their own pony. Things like wifeswap sicken me and i imagine myself as a mother and my kids would be too tired and busy to watch tv nevermind plonked in front of one for hours on end.

I worked at asda and can recall these 2 young girls (not little) i think in their second year of primary so approx 6 years old? They were obese and buyin 11-12 year old skirts to fit their wastes which were only inches of the floor. Those poor girls couldnt play or be comfortable, whats life going to be like for them full of teasing and potential diabetes. They were an indian family and the parents were not over weight and they just fed them to keep them entertained. A packet of haribo whilst they were sat in the trolly on thier way round. Disgusted me and i wondered what their peodiatrician would have to say. Good on you for having healthy kids, they are future generations.

I grew up in a very rural area in Dorset 10 miles from a town and 5 miles from a village with a shop. We had nothing but a farm a few cottages and a friary in our Hamlet. My brother and I were out all day long in the fresh air. Summer hols were a long round of playing in the woods, and hay making in the fields riding back to the farm on top of high laden trailers full of bales and in the farmyard too. After a good breakfast on a Sat and Sun Mum used to look up and say "If I can still see you in 2 mins I'll find you a job" and whoosh we were gone and not home again till supper time. We lived off scrumped apples and glasses of milk and bickies from the farmers wife. I started going to a house a couple of miles away where they kept ponies and bred New Forresters and I can remember being thrown up on the back of many an unbroken pony as I was light... I don't bear to think about the times I was bucked off, probably got something to do with my arthritis!!! This was during the 60's...until I got to 13/14 and discovered BOYS!!! Then it was all, getting off the school bus in other villages and hanging around the village squares etc..
Oh how nice it was and no worries about rapists and murderers, I suppose there was a threat but it must have been very small.
My brother and I were fit healthy and slim.
Aileen

Another thing about my childhood was that I never wanted to be in.
My friends and I were too  bsuy to want to be indoors, even if it was making dens and general mucking about, if at home what was there?
Now they have constant childrens telly, and computers and so on all on tap, they are too busy indoors to want to go out, it is sad because building relationships with all kinds of people is being lost here too.

Karen

> Now they have constant childrens telly, and computers and so on all on tap, they are too busy indoors to want to go out,

Mine often stay indoors to do art and craft activites, make up plays and songs etc, but rarely have the TV on as their own games interest them more!

They do get out too but of course how much freedom they get depends on their ages and where we live - it's that balance between freedom and safety which each parent has to work out for their own children.