'Move It Outside Day' is for parents, too

Published: April 21, 2010

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Schools throughout Pennsylvania are celebrating "Move It Outside Day" today.

Now in its third year, the program was created by the Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital, and this year is funded in part by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).

DCNR hopes to connect families to outdoor activities taking place in Pennsylvania's state parks. Hershey times its celebration to coincide with National Turn off the TV Week.

Numerous studies have shown that excess television and computer time can adversely affect a child's school performance, activity level and weight. The latter in particular is an epidemic that no health care reform legislation will solve.

According to Hershey, children spend nearly 1,023 hours in front of the TV per year, nearly three hours per day. Add computer time to that and the number climbs even further.

Hershey and DCNR deserve credit for their considerable effort to address nutrition and activity. There have also been notable campaigns by the NFL for children to become more active. But on "Move It Outside Day," we stress the need for another key player in the promotion of activity and good health: the parent.

Too many responsibilities that belong to parents have been doled out to others, a trend that itself leads to many of the problems others in society are expected to solve.

Parents don't have it easy in this complicated 21st century, but setting an example on "Move It Outside Day" should be easy enough.

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