Don’t Use Exercises to Punish Children.
It’s a common situation in youth sports – a couple of kids are late for training or fooling around and distracting their teammates. Their coach responds by sending them on a few laps around the field or telling them to “quit and give him 20”. This may seem like a natural consequence, given the already physical nature of the sport they are involved in; but using exercise as a punishment is a slippery slope that can become dangerous and should be avoided altogether.
Running a few laps to get your teen out of distraction might seem like a fair and effective outcome at the moment, but Dr. Kimm Ballard writes for TeachThought that the issue is actually efficiency:
When we demand push-ups to punish wrongdoing, we send a loud and clear signal that exercise is terribly unpleasant and we should all avoid it. And our children certainly hear it. While not enough children (or adults, for that matter) are getting the recommended amount of daily exercise, the last thing we should do is reinforce the idea that physical activity is something to fear. If children are already trying to find reasons to be less active, considering exercise as a punishment is another reason not to.
This mentality can be passed on into adulthood, leading to a lifelong aversion to exercise, which naturally pushes a person toward inactivity, obesity, and other health problems. The goal of any physical education teacher should be to teach students that exercise is a positive and productive way to spend time, not something to rebel against.
So, by trying to control their behavior, you are teaching a completely wrong lesson about physical activity so that they can remember them for the rest of their lives. And the more you push them, the more it turns from simple punishment to real violence.
Check out this letter, written this week under Slate’s Care and Feeding :
My brother has a bizarre form of punishment that he applies to his children. He makes them do the exercises – not like a few jumps, but like 200 push-ups or eight minutes of wall squats without interruption. By the time they finish, the kids will be crying, and often their muscles are too sore to play with for a while. I believe this is a form of abuse. I tried to talk to my brother about it, but he insists that it is within the normal range and that since I have no children, I don’t understand.
I am not childless, and for me this is obvious violence. But at what point did bad tactics become offensive? After 30 push-ups? 50? one hundred? If you need to ask yourself this question, then you have already gone down the wrong path.
We must teach children that exercise is good for our body and mind. It makes us stronger and relieves stress. This is why 2020 is the Year of the Walk; we have all been trying to relieve stress since mid-March – and our children are good at witnessing this. But don’t make them run because they are late, naughty, or answering; instead force them to give up the practice or activity. Get rid of other privileges or look for better and safer consequences.