Helicopter Parents Need to Land

Kids with more freedom get more exercise, according to a study conducted in the U.K. Can this be done in a city environment? You betcha.  Stay turned for ParentZing! tips on how this can be accomplished… and feel free to submit your own ideas!
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Click here to see Reuters link to article, copied in its entirety below.
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Research has shown that children with more independent mobility interact more with other children and their environments, while lower levels of independent mobility could “negatively influence children’s emotional, social and cognitive development,” and may lead to more sedentary behaviours, putting them at risk of obesity.

Children whose parents give them more free rein to roam are also more physically active, new research from the United Kingdom shows.

Parents are becoming less and less likely to allow their children this kind of independence, Dr. Angie Page and her colleagues from the University of Bristol point out, and more research is needed on how to change the social and physical environment to allow parents to feel more comfortable giving their children more autonomy.

Page and her team looked at the independent mobility — the degree to which the children were allowed to move around without adult supervision. An example would be allowing children to walk to school or to a friend’s house without being accompanied by an adult.

Parents may be becoming increasingly reluctant to let their children wander on their own due to concerns about traffic dangers or the threat that their child might be molested, the researchers note, or they may also want to spend more time interacting with their children.