I suppose you could say I was one of those fathers who spoiled their child; from a young age, if he smiled at something, I bought it for him and the trend continued as he got older until by the age of nine his bedroom was kitted out with a high-definition TV and all three of the current video games consoles.

After a while, he was literally coming home from school, running upstairs, switching off the lights in his room and playing games until it was time for bed - I would even take his dinner upstairs so he could eat without tearing himself away from the game. After a few months of this, my wife decided that it couldn’t go on and we looked into ways to get him away from the games and out into the sun.

We tried enrolling him in after-school football clubs but he wouldn’t go since he doesn’t like football and staying at school after classes had finished made him feel like he was being punished. We didn’t want him to feel like that - it was our fault, after all - but we needed to find a way to get him active; he was becoming unsociable and clearly looked like someone who sat in a room all evening. After having discussions with a few of our friends, the conversation started turning to climbing frames.

Several of our friends had climbing frames in their back gardens for their children to play on so they had something to keep them active in their own home. Though these weren’t the cure all solution, our friends all said that their climbing frames were the gateway to getting their children active.

Trying to start an inactive child out in an afterschool group isn’t the best way to start them out exercising - they may well feel like they were being punished as my son did, and an inactive child could well find themselves feeling discouraged because they can’t compete with the fitter children. Our friends suggested climbing frames as they were the way they got their children out of the bedroom - it starts small; they go into the garden for half an hour or so to play on it after school and it follows on from there. After a while of exercising in their garden they can often find themselves wanting to become more active, forgoing the games console for real sports outside with real people.

Since we purchased our climbing frame several months ago, our son hardly plays his video games anymore. Though he was initially a little apprehensive of it, he was soon clambering all over it and my wife and I decided it was the best purchase we’d ever made. A few adjustments to his diet and our son has never been happier or healthier - he’s joined the school basketball team and has even given me one of his games consoles. Though I regret that I spoiled our child to the point where we needed to do something about it, I’m glad such a simple and affordable solution was able to help him and us before it became too difficult.

Thomas Pretty is a father who found that purchasing some garden apparatus for his child encouraged him to become more active. Find out more about climbing frames at http://www.rainbowplay.co.uk/

[tags]Climbing frames[/tags]