I told my daughter not to do something the other day and another mother suggested that I was being too protective. I considered her comment for a long moment and then said, “Maybe so, but no matter how flexible she is now and how quick she is to bounce back from hurting herself – if she doesn’t do something right and learn how to do it the right way now – long term stress injuries are going to plague her later.”
Maybe it’s because I write about fitness for a living or maybe it’s because I have my own host of old injuries from years of running around on roller skates and jumping horses and running track. The thing is, when we’re young – we don’t think about long term consequences – why would a child think about that? That’s what parents are for.
Avoid Extremes
We’re entrusted with keeping our children safe and that trust is not something we should shrug off just because kids will be kids. We tell them to wear bicycle helmets when they are riding their bikes. We insist they keep the stunts to a minimum and we remember the next time they want to try a ramp jump that while their joints are young now – they are going to age and eventually all the pounding that they are giving to themselves right now – it’s going to cost them later.
Consider for a moment the next time you take a step and you feel that throbbing pain in your knee or your ankle and you remember that stupid thing you did way back when before you knew better? Well you know better now and you can teach your kids and help them to do it better.
Take Precautions
Playing sports is a natural part of most children’s lives. You have some kids that like baseball, others that like football and then you have your soccer fans and gymnastics and much more. Kids love sports, they love playing, they love doing it and they love having a good time. We encourage this level of physical activity whether as a healthy outlet or as one that promotes physical fitness, but it’s equally important that we take precautions and teach our children to take precautions too.
So how do you do this?
Treat any injury your child sustains with respect. Teach them to treat it with respect. A week ago, my daughter hurt her back doing gymnastics. She was doing a handstand and her elbows bent and she fell down the wrong way. It hurt quite a bit when she did it and I watched her carefully over the next several hours. We used Aspercreme along her lower back where she complained of the pain the most and we limited her physical activities over the next couple of days.
She felt some pain on the next day and some aches the day after that, but by day three she felt fine. I erred on the side of caution and gave her until day four before I let her get really active or play hard again. She complained, but I’d rather list to her complaints than let her overdo it and do herself a serious injury.
Teach Them To Take Care & You Do The Same
It’s important to teach our kids about stretching before they go into any heavy-duty exercise. Many instructors will walk them through it, but kids don’t always have respect for it. As a parent, you need to get them there on time so they can stretch, if you’re perpetually late to a class or activity, it can cause your kids to miss out on the essential stretching they need to do.
Kids need to take proper care of their bodies and that may mean daily vitamins and plenty of sleep as well as plenty of rest between heavy-duty activity days. Be sure they wear a helmet on their bikes. Put kneepads on them when they are on roller skates or a skateboard and if they take a serious hit or fall, have them checked out by the pediatrician.
Don’t let your own competitive edge force them beyond their limits and avoid telling them to push past the pain. Respect their pain, respect their bodies and give them a break – they’ll thank you for it later in life.
Do you take precautions with your son or daughter’s fitness and activities?
Editor’s Note: It should be noted that while writing this, I made us five minutes late to my daughter’s dance class. Her comment after class: You made me miss stretching Mommy! — Heather
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