Essay Sample on Parents' Role in Fighting Kids' Sedentary Lifestyle

Introduction

Parents are critical in shaping their children's behavior and personality. Importantly, one kids' lifestyle that worries parents is sedentary living where an individual less active since he/she is into the kind of lifestyle that has little or no activities (Basch, Kecojevic, Cadorret & Zagnit, 2016). Examples of a sedentary way of living are watching television or using a phone for a lot of time in a day. Physicians disregard this inactive manner of life as it can lead to fatal health conditions such as obesity and cardiac diseases (Basch et al., 2016). However, parents encounter difficulties while training them to live actively. This paper explains the challenges of improving sedentary lifestyles together with the strategies of attaining an active lifestyle. Also, in this essay, I give my opinion regarding obesity prevention.

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Barriers to Improving Sedentary Lifestyles

The first problem is that children influence their parents purchasing habits. In their study, Basch and his colleagues (2016) observed that children were powerful regarding convincing their parents to buy the items that they desired. As a result, parents ended up buying for them things that support sedentary lifestyles such as video games, mobile phones, and television.

Secondly, unhealthy eating plans contribute to the addictive to sedentary living. According to Basch and his colleagues (2016), overweight and obese conditions, which are caused by sedentary lifestyles, makes a person to lose interest and psyche to participate in active activities. As mentioned above, children can control what their parents buy for them; thus, it becomes challenging to manage their dieting Statistics by Federal Trade Commission as presented by Basch, and his fellows showed that children bought fast foods mostly (Basch et al., 2016). Notably, this data implies that a significant number of children are obese, making it a difficulty to improve their sedentary living.

Lastly, lack of family support to motivate active living is a barrier to rectify sedentary life amongst adolescent. According to Basch and his colleagues (2016), family and friends have a significant impact on how children behave or live. Most adults use forceful methods to make their children live a un-sedentary lifestyle which, in turn, makes them (kids) resistant to a style that is being introduced.

Strategies to Promote an Active Lifestyle

The first strategy I would use to encourage active lifestyles for families is the media. Importantly, the media is a powerful tool of communication; thus, it can influence and persuade people to follow a specific cause. I would advocate for advertising campaigns that depict the importance of living un-sedentary life (Basch et al., 2016). For instance, the adverts should include both social and medical benefits such as family fun and physical fitness. Importantly, this strategy is useful as it involves image persuasion, which is much better than threats (Basch et al., 2016).

Another effective way to convince families to lead a healthy lifestyle is through knowledge. Every member of the family should be exposed to the details regarding the benefits and the dangers of living an un-sedentary and sedentary lifestyle, respectively (Chastin, Fitzpatrick, Andrews & DiCroce, 2014). According to Chastin and his colleagues (2014), knowledge about lifestyles promotes self-awareness that motivates people to safeguard their health. More so, the information provides them with different approaches to achieving the desired healthy living (Chastin et al., 2014). Families can get knowledge concerning living styles from health campaigns by the media as well from medical experts.

My Opinion Regarding Obesity Prevention

In my view, obesity prevention should begin as early as childhood ages like six months when a baby starts weaning. Experts say that weight related-issues affect all people regardless of demographic differences such as age, gender, race, and occupation (Pandita et al., 2016). On the same note, Bashe and his colleagues (2016) explained that children with weight conditions are most likely to suffer the same in their adulthood. Therefore, based on this information by scholars, I think that parents should be cautious of what they feed their babies. I advocate for them to choose healthy diet plans during weaning and even throughout their (children) growth.