Fat kids? We have only ourselves to blame

The new iPhone came out this month. Kids are going nuts over it. And every week, add to that more Wii and Xbox 360 games, more gadgets and more distractions that allow kids to use their thumbs and not their legs, arms, heart and lungs. That's becoming a worsening problem in the U.S.

How bad, you ask?

According to a study in Wednesday's Journal of American Medical Association, kids between the ages of 9 and 15 get less than two hours of daily exercise. And the older the kids get, the less exercise they get. Case in point, only 3 percent of 15-year-olds get two hours of physical activity a day, according to the study.

The federal government's recommended one hour of moderate to vigorous exercise — walking, cycling, swimming or jogging — isn't being met by about two-thirds of American teens. The study tracked 1,000 kids at various ages from 2000-06.

Does that really surprise us? A lot of people might be reading this thinking they wish they could get more than an hour of physical activity every day. After all, we've gotten fat as a nation, and we're getting fatter. Worse, we're making our kids fat — and unhealthy.

The problem, of course, is that we're setting our kids up for a life of pain: diabetes, heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure and other weight-related issues. We're also ignoring research that links exercise with better learning in the classroom.

What happened? There was a time not so long ago when kids spent their summer vacations riding bikes, swimming at the neighborhood pool, running and playing outside or participating in summer sports or camps. Even after school, kids would head for their bikes or play outside with their friends until the streetlights came on. Remember hide and seek or red rover?

Today, neighborhoods look void of any kids. They exist — we've seen them. But they step off the bus and into the living room where a world of electronic distraction awaits. Those gadgets aren't evil, mind you; but kids spending all their time on them is.

That's not to say activities don't abound even here in the Lowcountry. There are several intramural programs, after-school clubs and sports and recreation venues to partake in.

Heck, even walking around a shopping mall is better than sitting on the couch.

It's often said kids are growing up too fast. Maybe that's because they don't spend enough time simply playing. Kids barely look like kids anymore. They can't wait to grow up so they can sit around even more.

Parents need to encourage their kids to get outside and get active. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, so once they get into the rhythm, it will stick. And it will stick for a lifetime. Unfortunately, so does the converse.

Adults set bad examples. We wake up, rush to work, come home, eat and plop on the couch.

But parents have a critical chance to set good examples by going outside with their kids — playing catch in the yard, walking the family dog, playing tennis or riding bikes. Let's not get so consumed by our own lives that we ignore our kids'.

We owe them more than that.