Once the children have arrived, your own fitness program is often neglected. You can’t even go bowling even if you have just bought the best bowling balls for the next game. Everything seems easily drowned in the myriad of obligations. But this doesn’t have to be the case. You can still go out and play bowling with friends with a little twist. So now, you can go out and play bowling with friends and family.
Play bowling and other sports with your family
You don’t have to neglect your favorite sport. The best solution is to involve your own children. Involving your children in any of your activities strengthens your relationship with them. At the same time, you are doing them a favor. Children need exercise too just as we adults need to stretch out and keep fit. So doing things together with your family benefits everyone.
An example is three fixed days a week at a specific time for half an hour or an hour. Explain to the child why it is important to practice and stick with it regularly. In this way, you teach the child about health and at the same time get to implement your own program. You also do something with your child.
Other tips to stay fit even with children
Relocate the fitness times to school and kindergarten times
Why not plan an hour of fitness while the children are in daycare or school? The problem remains that you have to deal with everything else relating to the household at the same time. With discipline and a good work schedule, however, it is possible to cut off an hour – or at least half an hour – for your own fitness.
One possible idea: especially with older children, you are able to delegate one task or another to them. The children do this after they return from school. Explain to the child why they are doing these tasks. This gives you space for your fitness program and the child learns to take responsibility at the same time. When the children are older and you play sports at home, set up fixed times for self-activity.
This usually doesn’t work for the youngest. Another problem with working parents is that the children are in kindergarten or school during the time they are working. This does not give the freedom to plan the children’s schooling individually – but there are a few helpful tips for this too!
Choose a gym with childcare
Those who prefer to go to the gym regularly instead of strengthening their fitness at home will benefit from the childcare that many studios offer. As a rule, it is a play area in which the children play under supervision while the parents play sports.
You should therefore focus your own fitness on times when you have the opportunity to take the child with you to the studio. This is usually the late afternoon or early evening. In particular, if you plan the training times consistently and introduce a rhythm of three times a week, the child will quickly get used to it.
It also makes sense to use the weekends: Then you have the option of training in the morning and then doing something with the child. One downer with this solution is that you lose more time with the child. This is often tight for working parents.
Use family resources
Many children love to spend time with their grandparents, their favorite aunt or their favorite uncle. If the relatives live nearby and like to spend time with the children, it helps to schedule regular “grandma & grandpa times”. Godmothers and uncles or other close friends and relatives are also possible.
It is important that the child has a strong and positive relationship with the person concerned and enjoys spending time with him or her. This solution does not avoid the problem of limited time with one’s own children. But at least this ensures that the children are looked after by someone whom you and the child know well.
This is how you know that it is in good hands. In addition, the child does not feel “deported” when spending time with dear relatives or friends of the family. Depending on the day-to-day work of the parents, one of the parents is able to take care of the child. Meanwhile, the other devotes himself to the sport. This is the ideal solution!
Read also: Home Activities To Do With Kids During The Pandemic
The personal trainer for the home
More and more personal trainers are no longer tied to a gym. They come to your home to work on your fitness. It’s not cheap, but neither is it any longer a luxury that only celebrities can afford.
It is worth looking around for offers in your own region. The prerequisite is that you have space at home to exercise and ideally have an exercise bike or other exercise equipment.
Then a fitness trainer who comes to the house regularly is a great thing. Not only does it make it possible for you not to neglect your own fitness under any circumstances. For children, a stranger in the house creates more respect for the time when it is not allowed to disturb their mother or father.
Conclusion
Maintaining a fitness regimen with children and the whole family is a challenge. This is especially true for families in which both parents work. Still it is possible. Not every time you are forced to join the gym or use a babysitter.
There are also many possibilities for the program at home to be designed and organized together with the family. This is true even if there are no family members available to take care of the little ones on a regular basis. Of course, discipline is also part of it. But they are also needed as a childless single!