Zeno's Bar & Grill

The children’s gyms (such as Fitwize 4 Kids) reported on in an article in today’s NY Times ( “Playtime at the Health Club” by Mireya Navarro) seem okay, although it’s a little sad that one nine-year-old interviewed for the article talked about putting Equal on her strawberries (doesn’t she have her entire adulthood as a woman in America to worry about that?) But it’s a little over the top to hire a personal trainer for your child, as one mother in the article did.

The reason for these measures, we are told, is that kids today can’t just disappear for active playtime because, according to the personal trainer-hiring mom, “In this day and age you can’t do that. You make play dates.” It’s not clear whether or not that level of fear is justified. According to Gavin de Becker, a well-known expert on child safety, a child is 250 times more likely to be shot with a gun than to be kidnapped by a stranger (see his book “Protecting the Gift” ). Nevertheless, we probably wouldn’t send our kids out for hours unsupervised either.

On the other hand, we weren’t too keen when a book came out last year with yet another thing for parents to feel guilty about, coining the term Nature Deficit Disorder to describe a syndrome that can be avoided by increased outdoor activity, including hiking, fishing and bird-watching, presumably with a fair amount of parental involvement (at least for younger kids). It’s probably true that some children today are more disconnected from the environment that in the past, but it’s a little irritating to be told our kids will have some kind of disorder unless we strap on the hiking boots. Speaking personally (this is Melanie here), I grew up in the middle of Alaska and I pretty much exhausted the outdoorsy side of myself at a young age. I’m sorry, but I’m just not going to rally the troops and go hiking every weekend. They can do that on their own in college or something.

In all fairness, the Nature Deficit Disorder book is also in favor of unstructured playtime. And here indeed may be the sensible middle ground between feeling obliged to take charge of your kids' outdoor time out of fear of Nature Deficit Disorder, and farming out their fitness to health clubs and personal trainers. How about letting them ride their bikes around the block (or in front of the house) or collect bugs in the back yard when they feel like it?

--Melanie & Kelly