See Fisher-Price Will Battle Childhood Obesity With an Exercise Bike Tablet Holder.
“Your tablet-obsessed kid spending hours on the couch poking at a touchscreen probably isn’t doing their waistline any favors. But instead of wrestling an iPad out of their hands, Fisher-Price wants to help battle childhood obesity with a tablet holder that’s essentially an exercise bike for kids.”
I’ve written about kiddie exercise equipment before. See Sam stirs up a lively debate about kids and treadmills and apologizes. I hate the focus on kiddie weight loss. I hate exercise as drudgery in front of a screen. What good could come of that?
You see my knee jerk reaction is still that kids should put away tablets and play outside. They should run around in the woods and build snow forts and get out of breath playing games. Think ice skating and sledding!
But last year when I said that on our Facebook page lots of fans of the page pointed to the assumptions about class and wealth and safety that claim makes. Not everyone lives in a neighbourhood where kids can play outside. I also heard from people about ableism and the use treadmills might play in the lives of kids with disabilities.
I wrote, “I think I forgot the cardinal rule of being a parent. Never, ever, ever criticize the choices other parents make. I confess I’d kind of forgotten how much shame and blame parents get for their choices. My youngest kids are in their late teens and I tend to forget how judgmental people can be, including me, apparently.”
Go read the rest of that post if you’re interested. There are links to resources about this debate.
So, I’m setting my knee jerk reaction aside. And I’ll ask you what you think. What do you make of exercise bikes for toddlers?
