Obstacles to physical activity: how to overcome them

Prams, strollers and infant seats

Sitting in prams, strollers and infant seats for too long can make it difficult for toddlers and babies to be active.

Australian guidelines recommend that children shouldn’t be in prams, strollers or infant seats for more than one hour at a time.

When it’s possible, it’s good to let your child walk, move about or use a bike, scooter or push-along toy. It might make your trip a bit slower, so plan ahead and give yourself plenty of time to get where you’re going.

Space for physical activity

Sometimes the environment around your home can make it hard to get physical activity into your family’s daily life.

For example, you might not have a lot of play space at home. Many parents also worry about the safety of their neighbourhoods, so children don’t spend much time playing together in the street or in parks. And some suburbs don’t have schools and shops within walking distance of home.

To overcome some of these obstacles you could:

take your child to a park, sports field, beach, friend’s or family member’s house, library, school, community centre or other place with space to play
talk to neighbours with other young children about sharing supervision outside or on the street
park or get off a bus or train a little bit further away than you need to, and walk the rest of the way together with your child.

Work schedules

Busy work schedules can also get in the way of finding time to play outdoors with your children.

You could talk with other parents or people in your community about helping each other overcome this. For example, you could take turns to supervise a group of children playing actively outside on different days.

For more ideas, you can read our articles on getting children involved in physical activity, keeping babies and toddlers active and keeping school kids active.

Screen time: a big obstacle to physical activity

Screen time is one of the biggest obstacles to physical activity for children.

Screen time is the time children spend looking at or using electronic screens. This includes watching TV, using a computer, tablet or smartphone, and playing video games.

Screen time can keep your child seated for a long stretch of time. It can stop her from getting the physical activity she needs, and this can contribute to health problems.

Given the chance, some children will often choose screen time instead of being active. Your child also forms screen time habits from an early age. That’s why it’s important to guide your child towards healthy screen time habits.

Setting limits on screen time

A healthy family lifestyle includes setting and sticking to limits on daily screen time.

The latest guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics suggest that:

children under 18 months should avoid screen time, other than video-chatting
children aged 18 months to 2 years can watch or use high-quality programs or apps if adults watch or play with them to help them understand what they’re seeing
children aged 2-5 years should have no more than one hour a day of screen time with adults watching or playing with them
children aged 6 years and older should have consistent limits on the time they spend on electronic media and the types of media they use.

How to limit screen time
Different rules and limits work for different families. Here are some ideas for limiting screen time that might work for your family and help you get more physical activity into the day:

Set limits on after-school screen time – for example, one TV program, and then outside to play.
Have a few ‘TV-free’ days each week.
Record favourite TV shows and watch them at times that don’t compete as much with active play – for example, when it’s dark.
Talk to other adults who supervise your child about your limits on screen time. For example, if your child visits a friend’s house, you could ask the friend’s parent to let you know how much screen time your child has there. Then you can adjust how much screen time your child has at home that day.
Limit how much TV or other screen activity is ‘in the background’. If the TV is on in the background, it can still interfere with socialising, play and concentration.

Screen time rules and limits work best when they become part of everyday routine.

Some types of video games involve children being up and moving. Although these games are more active than simply sitting, they don’t completely replace the benefits of physical activity and outdoor play.