Children are socialized to model very closely the lives and activities of the parents that raise them.
If parents of children are active and promote sports and play with their children it is highly likely that their children will not become overweight or obese.
When children are instilled with the love of play you will find it difficult to get them in the house when dinnertime arrives.
One of the sad problems of today's parents is that they allow their children to spend hours upon hours sitting in front of a television or video games as a form of entertainment after school.
Parents must set rules that their children need to be outside playing a certain number of hours before they will be afforded the privileges of watching television or playing video games.
Parents cannot count on schools to provide the necessary exercise that was once required of every student during each school day.
In many cases recess has been canceled and students are becoming much less active during the school day.
Physical education has taken a backseat with all the budget cuts that have come about because of the severe economic crisis in this country.
However, if children grow up being forced out of the house to play after school they will find ingenious ways to entertain themselves that involve games where they will be running and jumping and burning off lots of calories.
Also, organized sports are also a very good outlet for children to learn to have fun and be active at the same time.
With the obesity rates rising dramatically even among children, parents of today must take seriously the activity level of their kids.
Without sufficient exercise a child is much more likely to be overweight.
An overweight child is much more likely to become an obese adult.
And in obese adult is much likelier to live a shorter lifespan and have much more medical complications as a result.