We spend a lot of energy trying to get children moving. Sports clubs, swimming lessons, screen-time limits, gentle nudges towards the backyard. And all of it can help, but the single strongest influence on whether a child grows up active is closer to home. It is the adults around them, their parents and supports.

The research is consistent, children who grow up around an active adult are far more likely to be active themselves, and to stay that way into adulthood. Not because they are told to move, but because they absorb what the adults around them treat as normal. A parent who walks, gardens, swims or stretches as an ordinary part of life is showing their child what an active life looks like, long before any coach gets involved.

It is modelling, not instructing

This works through example rather than direct encouragement, or needing to always be active with a child. Children watch the people they look up to and quietly conclude that if someone like them does a thing, they can too. It means your own relationship with movement matters more than your skill at it. You do not have to be sporty or fit. You have to let your child see you moving and making choices to be active, and see that you do not mind it, or even enjoy it.

It also takes the pressure off. If the most powerful thing you can do for your child’s activity is look after your own, then the guilt many parents carry about not doing enough can ease a little. Looking after yourself is not time taken from your family. For your child’s long-term health, it may be one of the better things you do for them.

Where to start

You do not need a gym or a loaded activity schedule that swallows your week, you can start with what is already within reach. A walk after dinner that the children can join in, a stretch or dance break whilst the kettle boils. Being active alongside young people is powerful, such as balancing together on the rocks at the park or playing basketball, but so are the choices parents make to be active alone, going for a run in the park, playing sports with friends. They are different, but both powerful behaviour modelling for young people.

If you would like more structured support, that is what our adult programs are for, built around whoever you are and wherever you are starting. And if you would like to be active with your child rather than alongside them, our free Thriving Generations program is designed for exactly that.