Do we need to take a closer look at what we're feeding out children?
Credit: Alamy
What with working from home, schooling at the kitchen table, sports facilities closed and even meeting friends in the park rationed, the past 15 months have been a challenge for parents and children alike. Is it any wonder that the kids have spent more time than ever watching screens of one kind or another, while exhausted parents reach for a bag of crisps come lunchtime? “Anything to get through” has been our mantra.
But for most of us, whether we’re parents, concerned friends or relatives, there’s a niggling awareness that the health of our kids is taking a serious battering. It’s not a new issue, of course. Lord Coe, speaking on the BBC Today programme on Thursday, admitted that “between the ages of 10 and 14, children become 50 per cent less active”.