Weighing the Dangers of Kids Playing Tag

Posted on 02 May 2008 by Lisa Pawlowski

Man, kids are fat these days. This is the thought that flitted through my head as I dropped off my daughter at school the other day.

Now before you send me hate comments and tell me it’s all the fast-food industry’s fault for injecting saturated and deadly trans fats into their products, or that nutrition is just too murky and complex of a subject for common folks to wrap their minds around, let me explain.

My daughter goes to a typical Texas mega-middle school that looks like a mall on the inside. It was built to educate 500-plus suburban sprawl students. Like many schools of its kind, the access is limited and there is only one area that the school recognizes as the drop-off zone, the lane that runs directly in front of the building. About five or six cars at a time should be able to unload their kids from this lane and drive off so the next five or six can pull up and deliver their children. But is this what happens?

I’m not a patient person anyway, but my knuckles become white gripping the steering wheel when I see parents wait until they are directly in front of the door of the building to release their kid. The majority of the parents do this. And I’m four cars behind waiting for each one in front of me because my daughter got out as soon as we were in the drop-off zone.

Invariably when the child gets out, he waddles up to the door because he’s overweight. It amazes me that in this age of skyrocketing obesity rates, for children and adults, parents don’t make their kids walk a couple hundred extra feet.

Being heavy isn’t all the child’s fault. It seems that adults are doing everything they can to discourage children from any kind of exercise.

The principal at Kent Gardens Elementary School in McLean, VA informed students that the game tag wasn’t allowed anymore because the game was sending too many students to the nurse’s office. Other games not permitted at this school are touch football as well as dodgeball, break dancing and tug-o-war. Now, instead of tag, students engage in “structured lesson plans overseen by phys ed teachers that stress chasing, fleeing and dodging but limit physical contact.” Gee, that sounds like fun.

We’re raising a bunch of overprotected weenies. When adults micromanage playtime, there’s no room for imagination. If parents are too afraid of their children being hurt playing an innocent game, then what exactly is allowed? Video games while sitting on the couch?

Two years ago, my son chipped his two front teeth on the blacktop at school while playing tag. I chalked it up to kids are kids and these things happen. When they’re playing, there is a chance children will get hurt, but they’ll get over it and move on. And isn’t that a valuable lesson that we all need to learn as adults coping in the real world?  

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1 Comments For This Post

1. Bobby Ozuna Says:
   May 5th, 2008 at 8:58 am

   Lisa:
   I couldn’t agree more. I have considered writing an article similar to this one in the past–being I am so passionate about my children and the harms we bring on them as parents when we shield them from the world.

   I always tell my children–when we have to have the “weight” talk–that Daddy will love them REGARDLESS of what they look like; that’s unconditional love. But in reality, its more than the way they look–its the health risks associated with being overweight at such a young age.

   I can remember being a kid (and it wasn’t that long ago as I am ONLY 33 years old) and when we were younger, we PLAYED OUTSIDE…all day…rain, sleet or snow…and we lived and breathed and ate the same snacks our kids do and even played Nintendo (1987 my house was THE PLACE TO BE) and yet we still found time for pick-up baseball and football games and someone always got a black-eye, or a scratched up knee or worse–their feelings hurt! It’s part of growing up.

   I believe in protecting my children…from the world and the obvious evils that surround them in this time of sexual predators…but I also believe you can’t put them in a bubble. You kill their ability to enjoy life. You destroy the concept of being a kid and worse, you hurt them, in the long run, when they don’t understand the concepts of competitiveness, striving to win and pushing themselves to excel beyond the simple means of a parent who says, “You can do it! I believe in you! But don’t get dirty!”

   Great article Lisa!!!

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