Michelle Obama participated in a Google+ Hangout Monday involving her “Let’s Move!” campaign.
In response to a question about what parents should do in unsafe areas, she advised that kids should exercise indoors:
That’s where we as a community have to come together for our kids. You know, schools are an important place to get our kids active again because that’s where they’re spending most of their day, but when I was growing up, our church was that place. You know, we did activities in the basement of our church, and it seemed like the biggest basement on earth, but looking back it was a pretty small space. And we would do plays and workshops and learn the flutophone and, you know. So the church was a safe haven for us growing up, and we have churches all throughout communities that are in desperate need of safe havens for kids, and they could be safe havens for kids for physical activity as well.
So again, we as the community, the adults surrounding these kids, we’ve got to get creative. I would encourage parents that if they also find themselves in a situation where they can’t get outside, then let’s figure out what we can do indoors because it doesn’t take the great outdoors to be moving every day. […]
So we want to give parents those kinds of tips, you know, and be able to reach to every parent where they are because every circumstance is different. But we have to be creative, and we have to understand that daily movement isn’t an option even in areas that are not as safe as we’d like them to be. It’s just not an option.
(HT dentonexable)
