Is Your Child Healthy, Fit and Disciplined?

My dad always speaks about his childhood days. He tells how they used to go and play cricket every evening or sometimes the whole day, how they had to water the coconut trees by drawing water out of the well, how the had to wash clothes and peel coconuts and all that. Its really interesting listening to all this, especially when people of my generation haven’t even walked more than a kilometre and not even touched a coconut! Thirty years’ back they used to walk to college everyday, and now some of my friends have their own private car with a chauffeur! Life was different then, and so were many factors associated with it.

I fall sick at least once a month. Most of the time its cold or a viral fever. And then I noticed one important thing, most of the kids of this generation fall sick like me. Sometimes I feel we kids in this generation have nothing called as immunity, feel it’s just a vague idea. Then one day, out of curiosity I asked my dad, how often he fell sick? I asked the same question to my dad’s brother and also a family friend of ours. They all said they rarely fell sick! It was something that made me think, and was pestering me since a long time.

My sister is good at sports. So last year my parents decided to develop her ability. So she was put under a coach in the stadium. I do go to the stadium and sit there, while these people are trained vigorously. It’s been one year since she has been attending this coaching, and what I noticed is something very surprising. She hasn’t fallen sick since the last few months. Even when all of us at home get infected, she doesn’t. So where did this resistance come from suddenly?

The other day I dad been to Bangalore along with my sister to attend an athletic meet there. We stayed there for three days, along with 20 other athletes under her coach. The whether there was different and so was the food. And at the end of three days I was down with fever, while none of them even sneezed!

That’s when I realised that the body fitness played the trick! Their body is so fit that they have resistance to almost every minor infection. Now that’s something, which interested me.

That’s one aspect of this debate. The second thing I noticed there is that most of the athletes are very disciplined, and have a very good academic performance record! And when I say discipline, its not only academics, but life in general. In the hotel, I had a brief visit to everyone’s rooms, and what I saw embarrassed me. The rooms were clean, and unlike mine, everything was kept in an organised manner. Now this is what I call discipline. I learned a lot that day from my juniors!. Since they are in the stadium till sunset, they have to divert the remaining time for their academics. That means no TV. And the devil can’t do his magic from the box now. They come home and do study everyday and most of them manage to get around 80% with the very little time they have. And that pays.

I know its every parent’s dream to see his or her children achieve something and be proud. It’s also their wish that their child always remains healthy. So I think putting little children to athletics can answer some of the worries! ATHELETICS ensures good health, mental discipline and also builds zeal to win! What I say is every child should be given a chance in this field at a tender age of 10. The parents should see his/her performance for the next five years. If they are satisfied, continue with it. Because after 10th grade the right decisions should be taken in this regard, whether it should continue as a profession or just a hobby.

In this way I think we can build up children who are the best of the best.