“Many American youngsters are not getting enough physical activity and parents are failing to make their children’s health a priority, according to a new study,” reports msnbc.msn.com. Nothing new here.

The article goes on to say, “research by the YMCA, which surveyed more than 1,600 American parents with children between the ages of 5 and 10, showed that 58 percent of children spend less than four days a week playing outside because parents find it more convenient to spend time in front of a television or computer.” Now, I am assuming they mean “an hour, four days a week.” Some editors were sleeping on that one.

Yep. Gone are the days we can send Johnny out to play while we sit and read the paper. Now, we send him off to occupy himself with a screen while we do. Who cares as long as he doesn’t disturb us, right? Why are we surprised that we are getting larger around the waistline and so are our children?

What’s to be done?

Comments are plentiful following this article, some not so kind…

• Bring back recess.
• Bring back PE.
• Get rid of technology.
• Stop being lazy parents.
• Get ’em into extracurriculars.
• Sign ’em up for teams…what if I can’t afford them?
• Stop driving them to school, or at least let them walk to the bus stop.

It’s the easy way out to blame society, schools, circumstances for our difficulties. If we care about our kids and their long-term health, we need to get out and be active with them. We can tell them they “should” but if we don’t, they won’t.

There are lots of options for being active. We just need to remember how to PLAY. Remember how we used to play? It’s fun and it’s free. And it’ll save the health of a generation.