Fitting It All In

Our daughter was given a booklet by her a teacher entitled Daily Physical Activity For Families.  It is published by the Government of British Columbia and is meant for children in Grades 4 through 6.  Basically it says that you need to get off your behinds and move for sixty to ninety minutes per day.  It could be by running around, by helping with chores, by walking - whatever.

On page 10 of the book our government informs us that:

Kids your age should not use computers or watch TV for more than two hours a day.

Remember that this booklet is intended for children in Grades 4 through 6 - children that are somewhere between nine and twelve years of age.  Fourteen hours of TV a week!  Gosh.  That fourteen hours has become the acceptable number for sitting on your arse watching the boob tube at ten years of age amazes me.

I tried to understand how one is supposed to follow our government's suggestions.  Here is our family (a typical?) schedule.

7:00am - Get out of bed!
7:15am - Get out of bed!!!
7:30 to 8:00am - Breakfast
8:00 to 8:25am - get dressed..don't forget to brush your teeth!
8:25am - Leave the house
8:48am to 3:10pm - School
3:40pm - Back home
6:00 to 6:30pm - Dinner
8:00pm - Go to bed!

So to fit two hours of TV in...hmm...let's see.  OK
3:40pm to 5:40pm.

OK..now homework....hmm....let's see.   Maybe after dinner....
6:30pm to 7:00pm.

So that leaves us with eighty minutes to spare.  Let's add some family time to the schedule...what do you think government, that make sense?  
7:00pm to 8:00pm (we think an hour to spend as a family is important)

Great, we have twenty minutes to do jumping jacks in the living room.  I hope the neighbours downstairs will understand.  Oops...nope....we don't have twenty minutes - showers must be taken before going to bed.  Darn it.  Maybe tomorrow we'll do the jumping jacks.

This makes little sense does it?  So how about reducing the two hours of TV a day down to zero during the week and maybe suggest two hours a day on weekends?  That might be more reasonable and allow children to be active during the week.

Anyhow, don't worry government....no one listens to you anyway.

Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Fact: Governments mean mediocrity.
Question: Why?
Answer: They are made of human beings.
Question: Do we have another option?
Answer: ?!?!
January 17, 2009
Anonymous said…
If we didn't watch 2 hours of tv a day, how could we become brainwashed by the world's advertisers (and governments) to buy stuff we don't always need to keep this economy going?
January 17, 2009
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