May 4, 2025 • 19 mins
Fitness guru and girl-dad Sam Wood returns to share his practical approach to getting reluctant kids moving, in an age where less than a quarter of Aussie kids meet recommended activity levels.
With his signature blend of expert knowledge and parenting realism, Sam offers practical strategies that actually work for reluctant movers. Including the delicate challenge of supporting kids with different athletic abilities and interests in the same household.
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With thanks to Sam Wood - 28 by Sam Wood
CREDITS:
Hosts: Annaliese Todd & Tegan Natoli
Producer: Tina Matolov
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to a Mamma Mia podcast. Mamma Mia acknowledges
the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
is recorded on Hello and welcome to this glorious mess.
We're embracing the chaos together, ditching the judgment. I am
(00:31):
taking a TOLLI and it's Mother's Day Week as I
like to call it, moving it from a day to
a whole seven of them. That's how I feel about birthdays.
Oh god, see that is like that is my worst nightmare.
Like it's my least favorite day of every year, my birthday.
I'm Annaly's Todd. I love birthdays. I'm a single parent
to one teen and one tween age boys and their
(00:51):
interests include AFL, little athletics and YouTube. And a while ago,
we had Sam Wood, one of Australia's leading health and
fitness experts and founder of twenty eight by Sam Wood,
on the show and he shared his experience and advice
for when you're raising four kids and there's clashing parenting
styles with your partner, and there was such an overwhelming
positive response to that episode, so we wanted to bring
(01:14):
you some more Sam would So we want to hear
from Sam as he is the guru of all things fitness,
about how we can actually encourage our little screen junkies
to foster a love of being active and just really
positive ways that we can influence this. Ah. I wanted
to hear this, but first, here's what's happening in my
group chat. So TIGS, you know how I love AI Yes,
(01:36):
and I love to outsource. Yes, I do. Well, somebody
sent me some fabulous chat GPT parenting prompts. Oh, like
what to say? It solves any behavior challenges, like pretty
much anything that you can think of. You can turn
to chat GBT like it's your own parenting guru. Oh
my gosh, which is wonderful, especially like for a single
(01:59):
parent like yourself. It could be your co parent. Yes,
oh my god, my husband. Yes. So there's a whole
heap of things in this like carousel that someone said.
There was all these different ones and it was like,
analyze my child's challenging behavior and then you go of
specific behavior considering their age and temperament. And I'm doing
(02:20):
that because you can add in personal things about your
child and then identify potential underlying needs, triggers and developmental factors.
I might be missing so you're like, you can have
a little personal psychologist for you and your child based
on what you're putting in and okay, what type of
stuff is chat GPT spitting out? So there was communication translator.
(02:42):
So that's like prompts for creating age appropriate language to
discuss difficult topics. There's a sibling conflict navigator. There is
a boundary builder. Ooh, and I did a test, of
course you bloody did, because I love AI and I
love to outsource, and it was for a routine architect
for my ten year old What so here was the
(03:02):
prompt design a morning routine for my ten year old
child that reduces power, struggles, builds independence, and creates predictability
for both of us. Oh god, I need this. And
then it literally spat out an entire routine suggestion. It
created language tools around, like if there's a struggle, try
this strategy, and it was literally like an actual timeline timetable,
(03:25):
and it had little like helpful tips like avoid micromanaging,
resist fixing things like socks being inside out or toothpaste blobs.
Let natural consequences live in my house because I always
struggle with the tooth That is amazing. Oh my gosh,
I'm looking at your sample routine here and I am
(03:47):
going to print this out and put it on my
wall for my kids. You're welcome, Yes, thank you. I'll
see you at aam out the door. I love your
new husband. Can he move in with me anytime? He's
very open. So Anali's Australian children's participation in physical activity
(04:07):
and organized sport has been the spotlight in recent years,
with mounting evidence that not enough kids are getting the
movement they need for healthy development. It's a new pandemic. Well,
let's unpack that, because what is the recommended like, what
is what is the movement for healthy development? What does
(04:28):
that look like? I don't know taking the toll you
don't know. I don't want you the historical historian. Well,
I didn't know off the top of my head. But
when I further then developed the research tools, AKA asked
your husband HGBT. So for children aged five to fourteen, yeah,
less than a quarter. It's twenty three percent achieved the
(04:50):
recommended sixty minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. Okay,
So if you've got a child between five and fourteen,
they should be getting a good hour at least of
moderate to vigorous exercise. So when I think about my
kids in their day, even if they don't have an
activity on at school, yeah, they would get that just
(05:12):
running around playing hand My tea gets that before breakfast.
He does not stop from the second he wakes up
to the second he goes to sleep. Okay, but what
about the girls? No, yes, NU, So look I'm not sure.
And like when they're at school, I know they do
their handstands and all that kind of stuff, but I
don't think they're running riot No, they're sitting around chanting
(05:33):
and talking like us. They're like little gossip girls, the
Golden Girls. It's pretty bad, isn't that. Those stats, it's
not looking good. I'm assuming your son, your sons do
a sport and lots of sport, and yeah, and look
it's not always gendered. But I mean, in my two
one of them is particularly driven and you know, go
(05:56):
on five kilometer runs, but the other one's a little
you know, harder to get out the door. But they
do play a at least one sport every season. I
think we get one weekend off a year or something
insufferable And it's not a problem in my house. Yet.
But here's my other research because my eldest is thirteen.
(06:17):
So a third of young Australian kids want to drop
out of sport and have asked their parents if they
can stop playing sport by age fifteen. Yeah. Oh look,
all of mine have started a sport and finished a
sport and they're only seven and six. But see, this
is what I find hard. You know, as an adult,
we're like, oh, you've got to make time to do
(06:37):
your exercise and it's up to us. Like these kids
are at school all day long, and you know, hopefully
within the school time they do get this physical you know, movement.
But if they don't, like, are we meant to be
taking them to a sporting activity after school every afternoon?
Like with you, I'm happy to do. Like you know,
my girls do netball, which they train one day. We
(06:59):
can have a game on Saturday, so that's two days
done and then you know, Banjo might do soccer or something.
But I'm like, that's one sport a season. You are
organized activity just too hyper focused. Think just peel it
back the playground. I know, but this is when I'm
running around with friends. If they're not getting that, if
(07:19):
they're not getting that movement within school time. Go to
the park. Oh it's free, yeah, I know, but for
a whole hour. I've got my bark days for over.
So the silver lining of my age kids now sort
of ten and thirteen, I can send them off with
a basketball and I don't need to go. I do
(07:40):
on weekends when I want to hang out with them,
but I if I can't get out the door. The
other thing that my kids, well the younger one does
is after school care, and all they do is dodgeball
tips They've got like, they do not stop. So after
school care is actually a great, very very high octane activity.
And I know a lot of primary schools have on
(08:00):
site sport after school, like so you know, whether it's
a kickeroose or you know, my kids school does a
yoga on a Wednesday or something like that. I think
that's really great if there's something on site within the school.
The problem is, though, because obviously in my thorough research
being the historical historian, the barriers to participation. The top
reasons that kids are dropping out is time and increasing
(08:23):
financial commitment. Because like sport is so bloody expense. That
is not the kids, that's not why the kids are
dropping out. No, that's the parent one. That's why we're
dropping out. We're sorry, Susie, because it's so bloody expensive.
And that's why my free solution of the park. Yes,
it is wonderful. And trust me, with three kids playing
(08:46):
the bloody sports, I tell you what, it is very
expensive times three. But yeah, ah god. So the other
reasons and barriers is competitiveness and pressure. I think that's insufferable.
I hate that. Oh no one's going to win, you
know when they don't keep score. I hate that. I
hate that I can win and lose in life, it's okay, yeah,
(09:12):
it's yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's from agony, aren't crabby
in the corner, lost interest or anxiety about playing. And
then this is the this is the big one, and
I think this is the key. This is really the
preference for other activities like YouTube, gaming, sitting device, yes, roblo,
I think that's the biggest killer. But do you know what, Tiags,
(09:33):
We have Sam Wood. He is going to give us
his expertise fitness guru as the person he is. Also
he's a dad of four children. Yes, so he's gonna
really take us through some positive ways that we can
encourage our kids to be active. Oh this is who
we need. That's coming up next. From reality TV heart
(10:00):
Throb to fitness mogul and dedicated girl Dad. Welcome back
to this glorious mess, Sam Wood, pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Thanks for having me a so.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Sam Wood, you are a fitness guru. This is your jam,
this is my jam. That's right, it's not mine. But
I have children and we need to keep them active
because I think you can agree, Like if you think
about how childhood's compared to everyone else's today, you know,
we were out playing in streets, kicking footies, riding bikes
(10:32):
and now like where And I'm saying we because I
am guilty of it, like raising YouTube professionals of the future,
and it's so tricky to get them off that damn
thing and get them active. What are some positive ways
that we can encourage? That?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Isn't it funny how you tell yourself you're not going
to be an iPad parent. You just tell yourself the
biggest fat porky and then it has been you just
they're just on them. But for me, there's a few things.
It's net not kids fitness, it's just kids moving and
having fun. I think. I think as a parent, you
to be a really good facilitator. You know, you might
(11:13):
need to try twenty different things with your kids. I
think too often we either do the sports that we
did as kids or the physical activities that we are into,
and if they don't take to them, we kind of
go our kids are not into it, and we put
a line through it far too easily.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You know, some kids you're like pin your hopes and
dreams of it.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, yeah, you definitely shouldn't be living viciously through your
kids and anything like that. But some kids are just different.
Like some kids love teams sports, some kids don't. Some
kids like ball sports, some kids don't. Some kids like
swimming and running or sailing or archery or you know whatever.
You've got to just try as many different sports school
(11:55):
term in, school term out until you sort of find
what sticks. And I absolutely think the more you push them,
the more they'll push back. Like you've just got to.
And it's hard too, because you've got three little kids
or four little kids or whatever it is. You don't
really want them to be doing six different things because
you've got to, But you just sort of have to
(12:16):
work out, you know what what's their jam? And you know,
I guess the other thing is not overload them. You know,
I see so many kids do so many activities, and
I go that poor the parents are burnt out, but
they probably don't also realize the kids are or on
the press of being burnt out too. I think less
(12:37):
can be more. Let you try lots of different things,
but over a long period of time, let them find
what works. Don't push them, and then as long as
they're having fun with it, that's always going to be
the best way that they move. And then from a
technology perspective, I do think you've got to have boundaries.
I think you're going to have boundies to how much
screen time they're having, and then what are they watching
when they're on the screen time? And YouTube is a
(12:59):
really interesting one because they can start out watching a
fascinating nature video, which you'd actually be like, oh, what
a great video, but then it goes down this rabbit
hole of the YouTube algorithm, then going other things you
might like and you're like, what on earth is that
you're watching now that you've just been served that is
something you shouldn't be watching. So I'm funny with YouTube,
(13:22):
but the little ones we sort of, don't. You know,
there's enough good stuff on the other streaming channels that
I think you've got more awareness of what they're watching
and probably more control over. Now your children are older
than mine, so that's different. I mean, he obviously uses YouTube,
but I think in that I don't know, six to
(13:42):
ten years or six to eleven, YouTube's a bit of
a slippery slope, that's for sure. But from a I
don't know everyone thinks because I'm saying my kids are
doing fitness workout, they're not at all.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
So they're not doing it like aerobics at home and.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
No, no, I mean there's certain things that I think
if they choose them, I love that they choose them
because I think developmentally they're so good for them. My
gymnastics is one Will and Charlie both the gymnastics, and
they love it like they're dragging us. They're not the
other way around. But it's so good for their balance,
their strength, their spatial awareness, their flexibility, and they're exhausted.
It's great for them swimming too, you know, I love
(14:16):
that they do swimming, but I'm not out there doing
five k runs with my kids or fitness workouts with
my kids. I mean as a parent, though, the one
thing I will say is they do model your behavior.
And the best thing we can do as parents if
we want our kids to be active is show them
that we're active. And that doesn't mean you have to
be a gym junkie or working out at home in
(14:38):
your pink leotat or anything like that, but going for
walks together, telling them what you did today from a
an exercise perspective, explaining to them, God, I feel better
when I exercise, Like just just planting the seed of
all these really nice messages at positive health messages without
jamming it down their throat, I think can be really
(15:00):
really positive. And if they see you doing this stuff,
and it doesn't mean to be every day, but every
now and then, that's a really important thing too.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
And if people are concerned and about their child, if
they're just really not into it, and you know they've tried,
like let's do family bike rides and they've tried all
the positive modeling and reinforcement. Obviously it's different with different
ages and stages. But what's some things that are maybe
more negative and things we shouldn't be saying, and some
more positive things we can be saying to encourage movement
(15:30):
if people are concerned.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, look, I think I used to have kids gyms.
So I had kids gyms for ten years and it
was always about the positive. But I'd often have to
talk to parents because they would they wouldn't necessarily talk
to their children about losing weight or anything like that,
(15:53):
but they would talk to me in front of their
child about that kind of stuff. Well you didn't talk
to other parents, And sometimes a bit obliviously, like they'd
just be having they just be talking too loudly about
something and not realize how perceptive or close to their
child was. But other times they would really wrongly and
naively sort of be like, oh, you know, I don't
(16:14):
need them to lose a bit of weight, And it's
like you're putting any of those messages into our kids
is just the absolute wrong thing to do, Like exercise
or sport for kids should be fun, or movement for
kids should be fun. And I think most of those
people get to that point far too quickly, and they've
(16:36):
tried soccer, footy, netball, and they're like, no, my kid's
not sporty, Like you've got to try fifteen more different things.
And if try. If they like it with you, great,
If they don't like it with you, that's fine too.
If they like it in a group, that's fine. But
you know, often often you don't realize how perceptive your
(16:56):
kids are. And I'll give you an example. My Willow,
my little seven year old, isn't super sporty. She's very sensitive,
creative type. And Charlie, my little five year old's much
sort of more natural at at sport. And they had
their school athletics carnival last week. I was racking the
long jump sandpit for six hours with another dad, which
(17:19):
was it was just a big day in the sun,
but it was nice to be close to the action.
And the night of the athletics carnival, Willow had you
not got any place ribbons or anything like that, and
it was sort of the first time I think it
a dawned on her that she wasn't a good runner
(17:41):
or in her in her mind, and she got really
sort of sensitive, and it was it was really hard
for me because I'd noticed it, but I hadn't quite
noticed that she'd noticed it, or sort of thought she
was sort of finishing middle of the road, and it
was just because her sister's now in prep, so it's
like the first time her little sister, and I was like,
(18:04):
this is going to be something, and I'm really going
to have to navigate just I don't want her to
not like sport because she doesn't think she's as good
as a sister, or you know, really avoid it sort
of pushed the other way. I don't, you know, I
still haven't quite worked out how I'm going to navigate it.
But just just little things when you've got siblings that
(18:24):
are a bit uneven, perhaps particularly when the younger one
coming through is a bit more natural, like even learning
to ride bikes and that kind of stuff. Like just
taking that time to do the one on one time
with the kids and separated a little bit so you
can build the confidence and the skill individually with the kids.
I think can be really really powerful, as much as
it might be more convenient to do it sort of
(18:45):
all together as a family. So yeah, a bit of
one on one time with the kids as they need
it can be really powerful.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, And it is so tricky, isn't it when you've
got kids with different abilities, because you know the creativity
she's going to shine in that space. But it doesn't
make a difference in that moment, reflecting that.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, that's a heart yeah, and we I said, that
was my natural knee jerk response, Oh yeah, but Will,
You're so fantastic at art and all this kind of stuff.
And she's like, yeah, it was athletic, Sato. That doesn't
help me right now, you know, Like it was a
bit like that, And as I was saying, and I
realized that wasn't really getting the job done. So yeah,
you spot on.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Thank you was always Sam Wood for sharing your practical
and lived experience in this I got a lot out
of it, and I think other people will too. Well.
Thank you for listening to this glorious mess. We hope
you enjoyed the episode, and we'd love it if you
left us a rating or review if you did love
the show. This episode was produced by Tina Mattelove, with
audio production by Jacob Brown. See you next time.
You're listening to a Mamma Mia podcast. Mamma Mia acknowledges
the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
is recorded on Hello and welcome to this glorious mess.
We're embracing the chaos together, ditching the judgment. I am
(00:31):
taking a TOLLI and it's Mother's Day Week as I
like to call it, moving it from a day to
a whole seven of them. That's how I feel about birthdays.
Oh god, see that is like that is my worst nightmare.
Like it's my least favorite day of every year, my birthday.
I'm Annaly's Todd. I love birthdays. I'm a single parent
to one teen and one tween age boys and their
(00:51):
interests include AFL, little athletics and YouTube. And a while ago,
we had Sam Wood, one of Australia's leading health and
fitness experts and founder of twenty eight by Sam Wood,
on the show and he shared his experience and advice
for when you're raising four kids and there's clashing parenting
styles with your partner, and there was such an overwhelming
positive response to that episode, so we wanted to bring
(01:14):
you some more Sam would So we want to hear
from Sam as he is the guru of all things fitness,
about how we can actually encourage our little screen junkies
to foster a love of being active and just really
positive ways that we can influence this. Ah. I wanted
to hear this, but first, here's what's happening in my
group chat. So TIGS, you know how I love AI Yes,
(01:36):
and I love to outsource. Yes, I do. Well, somebody
sent me some fabulous chat GPT parenting prompts. Oh, like
what to say? It solves any behavior challenges, like pretty
much anything that you can think of. You can turn
to chat GBT like it's your own parenting guru. Oh
my gosh, which is wonderful, especially like for a single
(01:59):
parent like yourself. It could be your co parent. Yes,
oh my god, my husband. Yes. So there's a whole
heap of things in this like carousel that someone said.
There was all these different ones and it was like,
analyze my child's challenging behavior and then you go of
specific behavior considering their age and temperament. And I'm doing
(02:20):
that because you can add in personal things about your
child and then identify potential underlying needs, triggers and developmental factors.
I might be missing so you're like, you can have
a little personal psychologist for you and your child based
on what you're putting in and okay, what type of
stuff is chat GPT spitting out? So there was communication translator.
(02:42):
So that's like prompts for creating age appropriate language to
discuss difficult topics. There's a sibling conflict navigator. There is
a boundary builder. Ooh, and I did a test, of
course you bloody did, because I love AI and I
love to outsource, and it was for a routine architect
for my ten year old What so here was the
(03:02):
prompt design a morning routine for my ten year old
child that reduces power, struggles, builds independence, and creates predictability
for both of us. Oh god, I need this. And
then it literally spat out an entire routine suggestion. It
created language tools around, like if there's a struggle, try
this strategy, and it was literally like an actual timeline timetable,
(03:25):
and it had little like helpful tips like avoid micromanaging,
resist fixing things like socks being inside out or toothpaste blobs.
Let natural consequences live in my house because I always
struggle with the tooth That is amazing. Oh my gosh,
I'm looking at your sample routine here and I am
(03:47):
going to print this out and put it on my
wall for my kids. You're welcome, Yes, thank you. I'll
see you at aam out the door. I love your
new husband. Can he move in with me anytime? He's
very open. So Anali's Australian children's participation in physical activity
(04:07):
and organized sport has been the spotlight in recent years,
with mounting evidence that not enough kids are getting the
movement they need for healthy development. It's a new pandemic. Well,
let's unpack that, because what is the recommended like, what
is what is the movement for healthy development? What does
(04:28):
that look like? I don't know taking the toll you
don't know. I don't want you the historical historian. Well,
I didn't know off the top of my head. But
when I further then developed the research tools, AKA asked
your husband HGBT. So for children aged five to fourteen, yeah,
less than a quarter. It's twenty three percent achieved the
(04:50):
recommended sixty minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. Okay,
So if you've got a child between five and fourteen,
they should be getting a good hour at least of
moderate to vigorous exercise. So when I think about my
kids in their day, even if they don't have an
activity on at school, yeah, they would get that just
(05:12):
running around playing hand My tea gets that before breakfast.
He does not stop from the second he wakes up
to the second he goes to sleep. Okay, but what
about the girls? No, yes, NU, So look I'm not sure.
And like when they're at school, I know they do
their handstands and all that kind of stuff, but I
don't think they're running riot No, they're sitting around chanting
(05:33):
and talking like us. They're like little gossip girls, the
Golden Girls. It's pretty bad, isn't that. Those stats, it's
not looking good. I'm assuming your son, your sons do
a sport and lots of sport, and yeah, and look
it's not always gendered. But I mean, in my two
one of them is particularly driven and you know, go
(05:56):
on five kilometer runs, but the other one's a little
you know, harder to get out the door. But they
do play a at least one sport every season. I
think we get one weekend off a year or something
insufferable And it's not a problem in my house. Yet.
But here's my other research because my eldest is thirteen.
(06:17):
So a third of young Australian kids want to drop
out of sport and have asked their parents if they
can stop playing sport by age fifteen. Yeah. Oh look,
all of mine have started a sport and finished a
sport and they're only seven and six. But see, this
is what I find hard. You know, as an adult,
we're like, oh, you've got to make time to do
(06:37):
your exercise and it's up to us. Like these kids
are at school all day long, and you know, hopefully
within the school time they do get this physical you know, movement.
But if they don't, like, are we meant to be
taking them to a sporting activity after school every afternoon?
Like with you, I'm happy to do. Like you know,
my girls do netball, which they train one day. We
(06:59):
can have a game on Saturday, so that's two days
done and then you know, Banjo might do soccer or something.
But I'm like, that's one sport a season. You are
organized activity just too hyper focused. Think just peel it
back the playground. I know, but this is when I'm
running around with friends. If they're not getting that, if
(07:19):
they're not getting that movement within school time. Go to
the park. Oh it's free, yeah, I know, but for
a whole hour. I've got my bark days for over.
So the silver lining of my age kids now sort
of ten and thirteen, I can send them off with
a basketball and I don't need to go. I do
(07:40):
on weekends when I want to hang out with them,
but I if I can't get out the door. The
other thing that my kids, well the younger one does
is after school care, and all they do is dodgeball
tips They've got like, they do not stop. So after
school care is actually a great, very very high octane activity.
And I know a lot of primary schools have on
(08:00):
site sport after school, like so you know, whether it's
a kickeroose or you know, my kids school does a
yoga on a Wednesday or something like that. I think
that's really great if there's something on site within the school.
The problem is, though, because obviously in my thorough research
being the historical historian, the barriers to participation. The top
reasons that kids are dropping out is time and increasing
(08:23):
financial commitment. Because like sport is so bloody expense. That
is not the kids, that's not why the kids are
dropping out. No, that's the parent one. That's why we're
dropping out. We're sorry, Susie, because it's so bloody expensive.
And that's why my free solution of the park. Yes,
it is wonderful. And trust me, with three kids playing
(08:46):
the bloody sports, I tell you what, it is very
expensive times three. But yeah, ah god. So the other
reasons and barriers is competitiveness and pressure. I think that's insufferable.
I hate that. Oh no one's going to win, you
know when they don't keep score. I hate that. I
hate that I can win and lose in life, it's okay, yeah,
(09:12):
it's yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's from agony, aren't crabby
in the corner, lost interest or anxiety about playing. And
then this is the this is the big one, and
I think this is the key. This is really the
preference for other activities like YouTube, gaming, sitting device, yes, roblo,
I think that's the biggest killer. But do you know what, Tiags,
(09:33):
We have Sam Wood. He is going to give us
his expertise fitness guru as the person he is. Also
he's a dad of four children. Yes, so he's gonna
really take us through some positive ways that we can
encourage our kids to be active. Oh this is who
we need. That's coming up next. From reality TV heart
(10:00):
Throb to fitness mogul and dedicated girl Dad. Welcome back
to this glorious mess, Sam Wood, pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Thanks for having me a so.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Sam Wood, you are a fitness guru. This is your jam,
this is my jam. That's right, it's not mine. But
I have children and we need to keep them active
because I think you can agree, Like if you think
about how childhood's compared to everyone else's today, you know,
we were out playing in streets, kicking footies, riding bikes
(10:32):
and now like where And I'm saying we because I
am guilty of it, like raising YouTube professionals of the future,
and it's so tricky to get them off that damn
thing and get them active. What are some positive ways
that we can encourage? That?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Isn't it funny how you tell yourself you're not going
to be an iPad parent. You just tell yourself the
biggest fat porky and then it has been you just
they're just on them. But for me, there's a few things.
It's net not kids fitness, it's just kids moving and
having fun. I think. I think as a parent, you
to be a really good facilitator. You know, you might
(11:13):
need to try twenty different things with your kids. I
think too often we either do the sports that we
did as kids or the physical activities that we are into,
and if they don't take to them, we kind of
go our kids are not into it, and we put
a line through it far too easily.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You know, some kids you're like pin your hopes and
dreams of it.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, yeah, you definitely shouldn't be living viciously through your
kids and anything like that. But some kids are just different.
Like some kids love teams sports, some kids don't. Some
kids like ball sports, some kids don't. Some kids like
swimming and running or sailing or archery or you know whatever.
You've got to just try as many different sports school
(11:55):
term in, school term out until you sort of find
what sticks. And I absolutely think the more you push them,
the more they'll push back. Like you've just got to.
And it's hard too, because you've got three little kids
or four little kids or whatever it is. You don't
really want them to be doing six different things because
you've got to, But you just sort of have to
(12:16):
work out, you know what what's their jam? And you know,
I guess the other thing is not overload them. You know,
I see so many kids do so many activities, and
I go that poor the parents are burnt out, but
they probably don't also realize the kids are or on
the press of being burnt out too. I think less
(12:37):
can be more. Let you try lots of different things,
but over a long period of time, let them find
what works. Don't push them, and then as long as
they're having fun with it, that's always going to be
the best way that they move. And then from a
technology perspective, I do think you've got to have boundaries.
I think you're going to have boundies to how much
screen time they're having, and then what are they watching
when they're on the screen time? And YouTube is a
(12:59):
really interesting one because they can start out watching a
fascinating nature video, which you'd actually be like, oh, what
a great video, but then it goes down this rabbit
hole of the YouTube algorithm, then going other things you
might like and you're like, what on earth is that
you're watching now that you've just been served that is
something you shouldn't be watching. So I'm funny with YouTube,
(13:22):
but the little ones we sort of, don't. You know,
there's enough good stuff on the other streaming channels that
I think you've got more awareness of what they're watching
and probably more control over. Now your children are older
than mine, so that's different. I mean, he obviously uses YouTube,
but I think in that I don't know, six to
(13:42):
ten years or six to eleven, YouTube's a bit of
a slippery slope, that's for sure. But from a I
don't know everyone thinks because I'm saying my kids are
doing fitness workout, they're not at all.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
So they're not doing it like aerobics at home and.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
No, no, I mean there's certain things that I think
if they choose them, I love that they choose them
because I think developmentally they're so good for them. My
gymnastics is one Will and Charlie both the gymnastics, and
they love it like they're dragging us. They're not the
other way around. But it's so good for their balance,
their strength, their spatial awareness, their flexibility, and they're exhausted.
It's great for them swimming too, you know, I love
(14:16):
that they do swimming, but I'm not out there doing
five k runs with my kids or fitness workouts with
my kids. I mean as a parent, though, the one
thing I will say is they do model your behavior.
And the best thing we can do as parents if
we want our kids to be active is show them
that we're active. And that doesn't mean you have to
be a gym junkie or working out at home in
(14:38):
your pink leotat or anything like that, but going for
walks together, telling them what you did today from a
an exercise perspective, explaining to them, God, I feel better
when I exercise, Like just just planting the seed of
all these really nice messages at positive health messages without
jamming it down their throat, I think can be really
(15:00):
really positive. And if they see you doing this stuff,
and it doesn't mean to be every day, but every
now and then, that's a really important thing too.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
And if people are concerned and about their child, if
they're just really not into it, and you know they've tried,
like let's do family bike rides and they've tried all
the positive modeling and reinforcement. Obviously it's different with different
ages and stages. But what's some things that are maybe
more negative and things we shouldn't be saying, and some
more positive things we can be saying to encourage movement
(15:30):
if people are concerned.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, look, I think I used to have kids gyms.
So I had kids gyms for ten years and it
was always about the positive. But I'd often have to
talk to parents because they would they wouldn't necessarily talk
to their children about losing weight or anything like that,
(15:53):
but they would talk to me in front of their
child about that kind of stuff. Well you didn't talk
to other parents, And sometimes a bit obliviously, like they'd
just be having they just be talking too loudly about
something and not realize how perceptive or close to their
child was. But other times they would really wrongly and
naively sort of be like, oh, you know, I don't
(16:14):
need them to lose a bit of weight, And it's
like you're putting any of those messages into our kids
is just the absolute wrong thing to do, Like exercise
or sport for kids should be fun, or movement for
kids should be fun. And I think most of those
people get to that point far too quickly, and they've
(16:36):
tried soccer, footy, netball, and they're like, no, my kid's
not sporty, Like you've got to try fifteen more different things.
And if try. If they like it with you, great,
If they don't like it with you, that's fine too.
If they like it in a group, that's fine. But
you know, often often you don't realize how perceptive your
(16:56):
kids are. And I'll give you an example. My Willow,
my little seven year old, isn't super sporty. She's very sensitive,
creative type. And Charlie, my little five year old's much
sort of more natural at at sport. And they had
their school athletics carnival last week. I was racking the
long jump sandpit for six hours with another dad, which
(17:19):
was it was just a big day in the sun,
but it was nice to be close to the action.
And the night of the athletics carnival, Willow had you
not got any place ribbons or anything like that, and
it was sort of the first time I think it
a dawned on her that she wasn't a good runner
(17:41):
or in her in her mind, and she got really
sort of sensitive, and it was it was really hard
for me because I'd noticed it, but I hadn't quite
noticed that she'd noticed it, or sort of thought she
was sort of finishing middle of the road, and it
was just because her sister's now in prep, so it's
like the first time her little sister, and I was like,
(18:04):
this is going to be something, and I'm really going
to have to navigate just I don't want her to
not like sport because she doesn't think she's as good
as a sister, or you know, really avoid it sort
of pushed the other way. I don't, you know, I
still haven't quite worked out how I'm going to navigate it.
But just just little things when you've got siblings that
(18:24):
are a bit uneven, perhaps particularly when the younger one
coming through is a bit more natural, like even learning
to ride bikes and that kind of stuff. Like just
taking that time to do the one on one time
with the kids and separated a little bit so you
can build the confidence and the skill individually with the kids.
I think can be really really powerful, as much as
it might be more convenient to do it sort of
(18:45):
all together as a family. So yeah, a bit of
one on one time with the kids as they need
it can be really powerful.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, And it is so tricky, isn't it when you've
got kids with different abilities, because you know the creativity
she's going to shine in that space. But it doesn't
make a difference in that moment, reflecting that.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, that's a heart yeah, and we I said, that
was my natural knee jerk response, Oh yeah, but Will,
You're so fantastic at art and all this kind of stuff.
And she's like, yeah, it was athletic, Sato. That doesn't
help me right now, you know, Like it was a
bit like that, And as I was saying, and I
realized that wasn't really getting the job done. So yeah,
you spot on.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Thank you was always Sam Wood for sharing your practical
and lived experience in this I got a lot out
of it, and I think other people will too. Well.
Thank you for listening to this glorious mess. We hope
you enjoyed the episode, and we'd love it if you
left us a rating or review if you did love
the show. This episode was produced by Tina Mattelove, with
audio production by Jacob Brown. See you next time.
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