Jun 6, 2008 By Metro Creative Services 3 min read

As parents and educators across the country can attest, more and more children are becoming overweight or obese. In fact, in a 2004 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 17 percent of children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 19 were overweight. While the culprit of this alarming trend can’t be traced to one universal cause, a clear contributor continues to be the increasingly sedentary lifestyle lived by many of today’s children. With an abundance of technology at their disposal, children have so much of the world readily available at their fingertips that the need for getting up and going has dwindled significantly. For parents, this increased reliance on and immersion in technology can be a formidable foe, as it’s hard to get children to be physically active when so much of the world is just a mouse click away. Parents looking to get their children more involved in physical activity should consider the following tips, courtesy of the New York University Child Study Center.

– Don’t force sports: Each child has his own unique talents and gifts. Forcing athletics on a child whose talents lie elsewhere, such as in music, writing or art, devalues the talents they do have and will likely instill a sense of disdain for athletics and physical activity. Music and the arts require physical dexterity and provide many of the same benefits as team sports, such as learning to be a part of a team and cooperation.

-Make and keep fitness fun: If a child is enjoying playing just for fun, don’t push for higher levels of competition. If a child wants to progress to more competitive levels, encourage that desire. But keep in mind that physical activity is supposed to be fun, so don’t make it into something a child does not want to do.

-Don’t be an aggressive fan: Nearly every youth sports league coach across the country can likely tell a tale of an overzealous parent who cheered too hard or too loudly and might have even grown confrontational with a league official. Such instances seem to be on the rise. While parents embarrass themselves with such behavior, children often pay the ultimate price, as it typically turns the child off to the activity, robbing them of both the physical and developmental benefits of participating in sports.

-Balance interest and involvement: The NYU Child Study Center notes that children who feel that their families revolve around their activities are prone to giving up those activities once they reach adolescence as a way of proclaiming their independence. To avoid such a fate, parents should remain interested but not become overly involved in their child’s activities.

-Look for an older child to act as a mentor: If a child has a teenage sibling or cousin who is an athlete, encourage a younger child who might be resistant to physical activity to spend some time with the older child. Younger children often look up to and want to emulate teenagers. Parents who know a responsible teenager they can trust should encourage such a relationship.