Inspire a Generation

As the Olympics and Paralympics finish and those involved concentrate on the legacy of London 2012 and their slogan "Inspire a Generation", I wonder how I can do the same at home.  

My toddler is going through a phase of mimicking the words and behaviour of those around her.  She feeds, winds, cuddles and rocks her baby doll (sometimes it also gets told off and put on the naughty step!), helps me with the housework, pretends to cook, tries to encourage me to eat.  Recently I have noticed that she has also been copying me doing my exercises.

I've often heard that the children of active parents, particularly active mums, are more likely to exercise.  In 2008 an article in the British Medical Journal - Early life determinants of physical activity in 11 to 12 year olds - looked at the impact of exercise in pregnant women and mums with young children on the same children when they got older.  Unsurprisingly, they concluded that there is some association between a parent's level of activity and their child's.  There are, however, so many factors to consider, not least genetics, that to me it seems like a nature versus nurture debate.

Nature is unlikely to have produced a top performing athlete in our daughter, but I will nurture her enthusiasm for having a go by involving her in my exercise routine.  I'm pleased to see her trying to join in.  I want her to see that being active is normal and exercise is fun.  Why drive when you can walk?  Dance in the kitchen if you like the music on the radio.  Run in the park and see if you can catch the pigeons.  

I don't want her to be turned off sport, as I was, for not being good enough.  If we are truly going to inspire a generation, a whole generation and not just the naturally able, then surely we need to encourage the gifted and motivate the rest.  To me, that is the challenge in the Olympic legacy and the challenge as a parent.  We don't need to be the fastest, we just need to be fit and healthy.

Olympic spirit

We've definitely got Olympic fever in our family.  We went to see the torch go through our area on Monday and the men's cycling road race yesterday, the TV is on  all day and we're channel-hopping between events, and we have tickets for rowing, canoeing and synchronised swimming.


The thing that really inspires me about all the athletes is their discipline, endurance, long-term vision and planning.  It is an attitude that I should try and adopt a bit more when it comes to exercising.  I exercise because I want to be healthy and I want to set a good example to my girls.  I can't really say that I enjoy it, although I do enjoy the benefits of it (social as well as physical), and so I can be easily persuaded to put-off a workout at home.  My reasons are mainly excuses: I'm too tired; I've only just eaten; I've got other things to do; I can't put on my workout DVD because my husband is watching TV...


Athletes don't become Olympians by skipping the bits of their training that they don't like and I will never be a truly fab fit mum if I continue to eat ice cream while watching Team GB instead of doing a few stretches.  Discipline, endurance, long-term vision and planning are words I could do with writing on a post-it note and putting on my mirror.