As often reported, there is currently a mental health crisis in young people. Indeed when I meet people with kids, more often than not they are talking about how their children are struggling with their mental health. This got me thinking about why this is, and as I often do, I turn to my science background for answers.
For most of human evolution, around 200,000 years, kids were running around, learning to hunt, fish, forage for fruit and vegetables and build shelters. They were always on the move. Now kids sit in classrooms pretty much all day, and when they are not, they are on their phones. They are stationary so much of the time. Until recently, kids did sport most days at school, but this seems to not be the case any more. Schools are priortising grades over sport, and taking it out of the school timetable, replacing it with academic lessons, in order to try and improve kids grades and get ahead in league tables etc.
But doing this is short sighted, there are so many academic studies showing that exercising improves learning capacity, so removing it is having the opposite effect to what schools are aiming for.
Exercise is not only natural and what we have evolved to do, it's great for de-stressing and getting rid of anxieties. So no wonder kids are more anxious than ever before. As kids are at school for most of their time, the responsbility has to fall to schools to get kids moving, especialy for 6 months of the years when it's dark before and after school.
So what can you do? Find out how much sport your child is doing at school, and if its not every day then you could suggest to their school that they need to ensure there is more sport available in the school day to your child. (I've been doing this, but it has to come from not just one person, but alot of parents working together to change it.) And as change doesn't happen over night, then you could try and ensure yourself that your kids is moving for at least 20 mins a day... doesn't have to be massive strenous, just a short walk with the dog would be really beneficial to them.
All most parents want is for their children to be happy. I no longer care about the grades my kids get, what I care about is them getting through school with their mental health intact. And what I really believe is that the more exercise they do, the happier they will be.
Lucy x
