3 Benefits Of Practicing Sports As A Family
Playing sports as a family is one of the best activities that parents can enjoy with their children. In addition to the benefits of physical activity itself, for both children and adults, sport will promote quality time to train in values and get to know each other better.
Plus, it ‘s a great way to promote a healthy lifestyle and help you stay physically active, enjoy the outdoors, and even socialize with other families.
However, when we think of doing things as a family, we rarely think of playing sports. But the benefits are so many that it is well worth considering.
Benefits of practicing sports as a family
Physical activity has many health benefits, both physical and mental, at all ages. But why practice it as a family? At the end of the day, surely everyone gets much more out of the sport doing it on their own.
Of that there is no doubt. But it is that the benefits of playing sports as a family go far beyond what each one individually can obtain. Because when we do sports as a family, the most important thing is not the sport itself, but the time we spend with our family. Taking this into account, the main benefits of practicing sports as a family are the following.
Encourage good habits
Sedentary lifestyle and childhood obesity are two very serious issues that can affect our children. If as parents we do not promote good habits, including physical activity, we cannot expect them to adopt them.
You have to set an example. It is not always enough to sign them up for sports activities or show them that we exercise in any way. For children there is no better way to understand that sport is positive than having good times enjoying it as a family.
In addition, playing sports as a family is a good way to show children that there are alternatives to television, video games and other sedentary activities. And a good way for them to grow up thinking that, as adults, they can have a full life with time for fun.
In this sense, family sports help to instill in children the normal and healthy habits that they should maintain, such as making physical activity a priority. If they see that parents make family time and exercise a priority together, they are more likely to do the same when they are older.
Create bonds when practicing sports as a family
Many families have little time to be together without the stress of each other’s schedules, tasks, and responsibilities. And when it comes time to bond, it is often by watching movies or playing games to relax and unwind. However, it often does not include conversation or teamwork.
Physical activity and family sports foster an environment for teamwork and communication, two skills that are important to a child’s development. With family sports we are fostering the opportunity to talk and work together.
In addition, playing sports as a family is a greater opportunity to meet each other. When watching a movie or playing a game as a family, members often do not get involved or observe each other’s actions. However, with sports activity, much attention is paid to how each person acts and reacts, what motivates them, how they work as a team.
As parents, this gives us the opportunity to encourage good behavior and correct bad habits that may form as part of natural development, as well as to reflect on our own attitudes and beliefs and how we pass them on to our children.
Learn to work together
At home, with the family, children learn many of the skills they need for life, such as teamwork. In fact, no matter how hard they work on it at school or when they play sports with their peers, if it is not encouraged at home, teamwork may not become a lifelong habit .
Exercising as a family encourages teamwork to achieve a common goal. This, in addition to strengthening family ties, also helps teach the importance of goal setting and achievement, both as an individual and as a team.
On the other hand, fostering teamwork through sport helps to lay the foundations for the achievement of other types of goals that have to be set as a family, either for common achievement, or to support some of its members in the achieving your own goals.
In short, since we have little time to spend together and as a family with our children and, usually, also few opportunities to exercise, isn’t it a great solution to exercise all together, outdoors and with nothing else to think about ? If you do not know what to play, do not worry, surely your children do. If not, just go out with a ball and see what happens.
