A sporting life
Having kids and finding time to do sports may not always be compatible. I felt guilty about not spending my limited spare time with Baby and so chose to spend all of it with him rather than do sports (which was a big part of my life prior to the pregnancy). He is older now and is showing interest in all kinds of activities so the opportunities to do sports with him are arising, One side effect of his increasing interest in sports, is the loss of the weight that I gained since I had him, which can only be described as a win-win situation.
We started running a few months ago. I read about Junior Parkrun on the web while following up a news story about a local council charging Parkrun (an adult 5 km run managed by volunteers to promote healthy living) for their weekly runs in a park near Bristol. The junior events are suitable for children from 4, and involve a 2 km run in a local park. The atmosphere at our local event is fantastic and Baby enjoys running with the other children. It is not a competition but the runs are timed and Baby likes to know whether he has beaten his best time. He is also keen to collect the wristbands which mark milestone runs. One of the older boys, one of the quicker runners who was kind enough to do some extra running to keep Baby company on his home stretch one Sunday, showed him the wristbands he had. Ever since then Baby has had the desire to collect them all. He is not far from his first one and is super-motivated. I run with Baby to keep an eye on him, which has meant that I run at least 2 km every week. I tend to fit in a (longer) run on another day in the week, and this regimented running has helped me avoid the niggling knee problems that used to plague me when I ran a lot more frequently.
We recently started swimming as well. Baby has a lesson once a week and I use the half hour that he is with his teacher for some lane swimming. It was very pleasant to be in the water during the recent heat wave in the U.K. and has improved my fitness no end. Baby, possibly on account of being a bit older and having been messing about in pools since not long after birth, has taken to lessons well. He is determined to learn so he can swim without arm bands- they stop him from diving to the bottom of the pool to pick stuff up (currently a favourite game).
I suppose these are examples of fitting things around family life and trying to make the best out of what is possible. We are lucky Baby, like us, enjoys sporting activities, but then there is no harm in us trying anything that he chooses, if only for novelty.
We started running a few months ago. I read about Junior Parkrun on the web while following up a news story about a local council charging Parkrun (an adult 5 km run managed by volunteers to promote healthy living) for their weekly runs in a park near Bristol. The junior events are suitable for children from 4, and involve a 2 km run in a local park. The atmosphere at our local event is fantastic and Baby enjoys running with the other children. It is not a competition but the runs are timed and Baby likes to know whether he has beaten his best time. He is also keen to collect the wristbands which mark milestone runs. One of the older boys, one of the quicker runners who was kind enough to do some extra running to keep Baby company on his home stretch one Sunday, showed him the wristbands he had. Ever since then Baby has had the desire to collect them all. He is not far from his first one and is super-motivated. I run with Baby to keep an eye on him, which has meant that I run at least 2 km every week. I tend to fit in a (longer) run on another day in the week, and this regimented running has helped me avoid the niggling knee problems that used to plague me when I ran a lot more frequently.
We recently started swimming as well. Baby has a lesson once a week and I use the half hour that he is with his teacher for some lane swimming. It was very pleasant to be in the water during the recent heat wave in the U.K. and has improved my fitness no end. Baby, possibly on account of being a bit older and having been messing about in pools since not long after birth, has taken to lessons well. He is determined to learn so he can swim without arm bands- they stop him from diving to the bottom of the pool to pick stuff up (currently a favourite game).
I suppose these are examples of fitting things around family life and trying to make the best out of what is possible. We are lucky Baby, like us, enjoys sporting activities, but then there is no harm in us trying anything that he chooses, if only for novelty.
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