April 2009

Whatever the Weather

Outdoor Fun Knows No Season

By Linda Kerr

As the days get warmer and the record-breaking snowfall fades from our memories, families migrate to the great outdoors. Children return to playgrounds, and parents around the area breathe a sigh of relief as their kids move beyond the confinement of four walls.

Or will they?

Even in fair weather, kids are spending less and less time outdoors. The National Wildlife Federation says children are outdoors half as much as they were 20 years ago and are in front of electronic media for four to six hours a day. Doctors and teachers agree that children need lots of time outside for a number of reasons. Playing outside, especially in an unstructured environment, sparks imagination and creativity, improves gross-motor skills and balance, provides a setting to learn about the natural world, boosts vitamin D production, and promotes a healthy lifestyle that decreases the chance of obesity.

Getting Our Kids Outside

While the era of children roaming the neighborhood unsupervised until the dinner bell rings may be long gone, there are still many options for extended time outside. Leading by example is the best way to get kids outside, says Trish Muse, a D.C.-area physical therapist and fitness expert. "My promise to my child is that I don't ask anything of him that I'm not willing to do myself. So if we want our kids to go outside, we need to go outside ourselves."

She suggests that if children seem bored by unstructured time outside it's important to find ways to make it more fun from the beginning. "Kids love to do mundane, everyday activities differently to break up the monotony and again inject the fun factor into what they normally do, such as having a picnic or incorporating school work, such as math, into outdoor activities."

Perhaps the best and easiest way to get kids outside is with other people, and that includes friends for the parents. "It's much easier to get everyone outside if we have a friend to play with, so make a playdate," suggests pediatrician Joanna Dolgoff, author of Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right! "Many kids are not even sure what do with themselves when they are outside. Create games for them to play, like tag, hide-and-seek or kickball. It may help to play along with them for a while to get them motivated to stay outside. Playing outside allows our children to develop their imaginations, which is so important for future creative thinking."

No Bad Weather, Only Bad Clothing

Not surprisingly, bad weather prevents many parents from sending their children outside to play. Now that the snow and cold are gone, parents are faced with rain and wind as new obstacles to outdoor play. Last May left the D.C. area with an astonishing 21 days of rain. Tie onto that the sogginess left behind from the rain, and parents might be surprised how often kids really did find themselves inside.

Dr. Joseph Skoloff, a pediatrician at Nova's Urgent Care in Ashburn, recommends parents put aside their misconceptions that bad weather is unhealthy for their kids. "Getting children outside in bad weather is not as difficult as it seems. First of all, I believe that children would prefer to be outdoors regardless of the weather. Parents have been brainwashed by their own parents who, in a poorly guided attempt to keep their children healthy, [believed] that being cold or wet can ‘give you a chill' and result in some terrible illness, such as pneumonia, etc."

While these myths may keep kids out of the parks during the cold rainy months, Muse suggests it may actually be the parents' lack of desire to be outside in the bad weather that encourages this idea. "Adults have more hang-ups then kids do. We don't want to get wet unless we're dressed for it, we don't want to be too hot, we don't want to be too cold, we don't like humidity, we don't want to be wind-blown . . . we like being comfortable, whereas children are not as concerned unless it's painful or isn't fun. Therefore, if it's not optimal conditions outside, adults tend not to want to participate."

Although a positive attitude and proper education are the steps in the right direction, another factor in the equation is dressing children properly for the weather. For inspiration, parents might look to the Swedes, who have developed a useful saying: "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." In a study last year, doctors at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center surveyed child care providers to examine why physical activity levels varied across Ohio. During their research, they found clothing was potentially a significant barrier to children's outdoor physical activity. Inappropriate clothing included a lack of coats and gloves in the wintertime, unsuitable footwear, such as flip-flops, and "nice" or expensive outfits that were not to be ruined. The study also found that only a few children dressed improperly could prevent the entire class from going outside, thus restricting physical activity.

The best antidote to being outside and uncomfortable in bad weather is buying and wearing appropriate clothing, says Skoloff. "This doesn't need to be very expensive, but make the investment if [you] really wish for [your] children to be outdoors during bad weather (i.e., rain gear, boots, thermal coats, gloves, hats, etc.)."

Even though children may not be as displaced by the temperature, it's important to dress them properly for the weather--cold, wet, windy or hot. "Remember that kids are very resilient; if you bundle them up, they will be just fine," Dolgoff says. "Try to remember when you were a child and playing outside; your clothes would be wet and your gloves were soaked, but you kept warm and didn't care because you were running around having fun."

When parents subtract all the days that are too wet, too hot, too cold, too rainy and too windy in a year, they might be surprised at how few "perfect" days are left for playing. Smart clothing purchases and a positive attitude can mean good outdoor fun for both children and adults. Leading by example can be a win-win for the entire family.

A few tips for properly dressing your kids

Linda Kerr is a freelance writer and full-time mother to two children in Northern Virginia. She and her family lived in Sweden for a year where they learned to adapt to any kind of weather. She writes at babybunching.com.