Remember your mother’s rule that you had to be in the house by the time the streetlights came on? Or hanging out in the park all day long? ESSENCE editors had a rollicking good time this morning as we reminisced about the things we did in our childhood.
Partly inspired by New York magazine’s “Childhood in New York” special, and shocking statistics about the amount of time children spend outdoors nowadays. If you’re wondering, according to statistics from First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative, children eight to 18 are spending an average of 7.5 hours a day using entertainment media, including, TV, computers, video games, cell phones and movies, and barely making it outdoors for unstructured play. Shocking! Especially considering that our generation—70s and 80s babies—spent so much time outdoors.
Our sedentary lifestyle has also led to the rise of childhood obesity rates in African American and Hispanic communities, where nearly 40% of the children are overweight or obese. Tell us: what did you do as a child that you barely notice children doing nowadays? And how do you encourage the children in your life to get more playtime?
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