Each Saturday morning, rain or shine we pack up our son’s karate gear and haul him off for one hour of instruction. It wasn’t a calculated choice to do karate, it was a circumstantial run it at the mall where I saw this young boy flying around the mat like he was a superhero. I thought to myself…I want to see my son do that. That decision however much lazy time and extra sleep we could get on a Saturday morning has yielded a few benefits.
Most importantly according to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Really important for us as a family to worry about because I know that we are not a family of small petite individuals. One might classified us a “big boned.”
In addition, he is learning something about discipline, individual achievement and having the confidence of knowing how to take care of himself. Lastly we know that amongst 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease; which in my son’s case; Asthma. To which since he began karate and now basketball has had almost no issues with his Asthma. That is something to keep him active for and for me to be motivated that he understands how important it is to take care of himself and a boy and eventually as a man. Don’t get me wrong, he still gets in his fair share time of Xbox and TV; but it is well balanced. Next step…ME following his active lead~!
