fathers - what do you do to instil "physical culture" on your kids?

[Flambeur]

Originally Posted by thekunk07

my 9-yo does laps with me and the wife. the 6 and 4 are not that comfortable in the water yet, so we take turns chasing them or playing marco polo in the shallow end.

I remember my dad used to take me to the pool on sundays and I was swimming laps when I was 6-7..

Good memories.

 

[Flambeur]

Originally Posted by thekunk07

^yeah, not better. we are all sheltering our kids too much. no disrespect, but the coddling we all seem to do is why i have 22-25 year olds i've hired with no work ethic and no understanding of how life works.

Totally agree with this

 

[Milhouse]

Originally Posted by globetrotter

I don't think that the changes are good, but who knows? when I was my son's age, I'd walk home alone, maybe a mile, and make myself lunch (usually grilling a hotdog on a frying pan). and then go outside and play until my parents came home from work. my son has never walked anywhere alone, and has never been at home alone, and has never touched the stove.

Yep. Both my parents worked when I was a child, so that meant walking home from school to an empty house. Making myself a snack if I wanted it (watching Julia Child on TV allowed me to make a lot of things like omelets at an early age), and then go outside, find the other kids in the neighborhood and start playing soccer, football, baseball, tag, fight, ride bikes, etc, all without any adult supervision.

I think today's world, my parents would have been charged with crimes for that.

 

[thekunk07]

yes, but conversely, globe is right too-i just don;t feel comfortable leaving them unattended.

 

[eg1]

Daughter 6 and son 3.

Both take swimming lessons (my wife takes them) and we have a pool in our yard, so my daughter is now a total fish. The boy is making progress, but still needs to wear a life-jacket in the pool if not attended directly by an adult.

This being Canada, we also take them to skating lessons in the Spring, and I will take them public skating now and then. The boy has way better balance than his sister, so his progress is well beyond hers at the same age.

I take my daughter to soccer (outdoor in summer; indoor in winter), which she likes OK, and basketball (winter only) that she doesn't really like at all. She's not very athletic and not really interested in competing -- my joke is that she'd rather design the uniforms than play the game.

My theory is that while she will never be a competitive player, at least she will have enough skill to participate in house-leagues and such. Sometimes the kids on the street will kick a ball around on somebody's front lawn, which is nice to see.

The boy went to soccer-skills sessions this past summer, and he can run and kick with the best of them -- he's just too young to understand the concept of a game yet. He will be in an age 4/5 league for the first time next summer. His favourite activity (besides jumping off everything inside the house) is shooting his sister's basketball on the mini-hoop I put at the end of our driveway (not possible right now with the snow), or throwing a nerf football with me in the living room (my wife is not keen on this) -- he can throw, but catching ability is limited.

As for what they see me do, nothing beyond playing in my touch football league.

 

[thekunk07]

^soccer is great for really young kids. at best, they learn the fundamentals; at worst they get great exercise running back and forth aimlessly and the beginnings of the concept of team.

in most sports, IMO, 7 seems to be the age where you really start to see if a kid "has it" or not in a given sport.

 

[Kev07]

I do miss riding my bike and shooting a basketball and playing tag when i was in elementary school w/ the kids on the block i wonder howmuch more this is going to change when i become a father, i'm only 19 right now

 

[West24]

globe why dont you sign them up to leagues?

 

[JoeWoah]

Originally Posted by Kev07

I do miss riding my bike and shooting a basketball and playing tag when i was in elementary school w/ the kids on the block

i wonder howmuch more this is going to change when i become a father, i'm only 19 right now

+1. I'm 26 but I think a little independence is fundamental. I wouldn't be the person I am today if I couldn't have made the mistakes, successes and relationships I did on my own early in life. I guess things really have changed.

 

[Stazy]

My dad and I have never really done physical activities together. He had an exhausting work schedule when I was growing up and simply didn't have the energy. He compensated for this by being extremely supportive of my hockey "career". He always drove me to hockey, he helped me train, he hired special coaches, etc.

Basically what I'm saying is that your kids probably don't need to see you exercise in order to have a physical culture instilled in them. What is more important is that you are supportive of whatever sports or physical activities they participate in.

That being said, I think it's awesome that you want to play sports with your kids. It will definitely provide your kids with some fond memories once they are grown up.

 

[Bic Pentameter]

I started judo as a little shaver, and handle the kids class at a dojo in town when the regular teacher is out. There are a handful of fathers who come with their kids (interestingly, the kids are mostly daughters). It can be tough teaching a class with 6 year old girls and 220 pound 35 year olds. Of course, the adults end up taking alot of falls when they work with their 3 feet high opponents. The fun thing about judo is that girls can often compete on an even footing with boys until they are 10 or 11 years old.

Initially, I thought that I should be teaching the fathers more judo, but soon realized that they were just interested in rolling around with their kids.

I am biased, but love judo and figure that everyone benefits from learning how to fall. I think that some of the fathers have decided to come for 3-4 months so that junior gets comfortable, then gradually move to the sidelines. If the falling and being thrown gets to be too much, you might consider doing that, Globetrotter.

I vaguely recall that my mother took me to tiny tumbling class and swimming at the YMCA. My father, who had been a minor league baseball player, played catch with me when I was a youngster, then took me to the ball field and pitched to me so I could work on my swing.

I have a 7 month old daughter now, and there is no question but that I will have her take judo.

As for throwing a baseball or kicking a soccer ball, I really wouldn't worry too much about how accomplished you are at those activities.

Bic

 

[TyCooN]

Boxing

 

[beasty]

Originally Posted by globetrotter

I was talking to my wife the other day, and she mentioned that she doesn't think that my son has really ever seen me excersize -he sees me go off to the gym or the dojo, and come back, and sometimes I take him and then leave him at childcare and work out, but he has never seen me actually excersize (she says, I am not sure, but I couldn't think of any counter examples). the games that I have gotten my son into really aren't my strong side - so I have taken him out to throw a baseball or kick around a soccer ball, but I'm not really very good at either.

to remedy this, I am signing up for judo with my son, not something that I really am excited about, but I thought that judo would be good for him, and it is a class that has adults and kids, so I thought that I would do it too. judo is the last martial art that I wanted to take, because I dont really want to spend the evening falling down and being thrown, at my age, but such is life.

I also think that I will let him hang out with my in the gym once or twice, and maybe even take him to my krav dojo.

what do you guys do with your kids?

Your wifey's concern is that your rugrat never see you exercise (not exersize).
So you just park him in the gym or dojo when you go! Problem solved!
Next question please.

 

[bigbjorn]

I sit on the floor and roll a ball back and forth with him. Hey, he's six months old! At this point, he can stop the ball, pick up the ball, and roll it back to me.

 

[globetrotter]

globe why dont you sign them up to leagues?

Originally Posted by Stazy

My dad and I have never really done physical activities together. He had an exhausting work schedule when I was growing up and simply didn't have the energy. He compensated for this by being extremely supportive of my hockey "career". He always drove me to hockey, he helped me train, he hired special coaches, etc.

Basically what I'm saying is that your kids probably don't need to see you exercise in order to have a physical culture instilled in them. What is more important is that you are supportive of whatever sports or physical activities they participate in.

That being said, I think it's awesome that you want to play sports with your kids. It will definitely provide your kids with some fond memories once they are grown up.

actually, we've gotten my son into 2 seasons each of soccer, wrestling and softball, and now hockey. our rule is that he finishes two seasons of each and then he can quit. he hasn't really liked any of them, or been that good. he does want to continue with hockey, and he did do reasonably well in wrestling, but not great.

and, lets clarify - I don't aim for him to be a pro athlete, I jsut want him to have some skills and be healthy and enjoy some of this stuff. now, I don't really follow any sports, and we have been thinking that possibly the reason that he hasn't enjoyed sports has to do with that. it might be that he just doens't like them, I don't know.