There's no point giving out to your children for slobbing around in front ofthe TV all day if you've taught them how to do it. Why don't you all exercise instead?
If you want to know how your children will turn out, look at yourself. If you're planning to spend Christmas gorging in front of the TV, don't be surprised when your offspring follow suit. Next time your children switch on the Playstation for the day, remember that familial couch potatodom has long-term implications such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes and osteoporosis. You need to exercise more than your fingers on the control buttons.
Fit parents breed fit children, says Dr Moira O'Brien, Professor of Anatomy at Trinity College, Dublin and president of the Irish Osteoporosis Society. Don't think you can give your child a tennis racquet or a bicycle for Christmas and then just sit back.
"If you don't play sport, they won't play it," she says. Turn up the music and dance for 10 minutes, toss a ball in the park, walk briskly in the fresh air - do anything, just be active.
Parents who keep moving - whether by walking, golf, tennis, cycling or kicking a ball around in the park - encourage their children to be active, she asserts. Hopscotch and skipping are becoming lost arts to children so get out there and teach them, she advises. Both encourage intellectual development and language skills as well as co-ordination. And jumping strengthens bones as well as muscles and hearts.
Making time for exercise and finding leisure time to spend with the children is a challenge for most parents, so why not combine the two, she suggests. There is a surprising number of ways that non-sporty families can become fit together without having to join clubs or gyms.
Trampolining suits all ages. For mother and grandmother, three short sessions a week build bone mass, exercise the heart muscle, lower blood pressure, reduce cellulite and help lymphatic drainage. For teenage girls, who are laying down bone mass for the rest of their lives, trampolining is an ideal way to stay fit and reduce stress. Young children also benefit, particularly those with learning disabilities and hyperactivity. Durable trampolines are made by PT Bouncer and come from Life Vitality Ltd (041-6861535). They range in price from €189 for a 40-inch indoor model to €799 for an eight-foot size suitable for the garden.
Basketball hoops are another beneficial family activity that can get everyone laughing and playing together. Basketball is particularly good for girls aged 10 upwards because the jumping strengthens bones. Children and teenage boys benefit from developing hand-eye and hand-ball coordination. A free-standing, adjustable height Huffy basketball hoop costs €245, available from Elvery's at Suffolk Street, Blanchardstown and Liffey Valley, in Dublin.
The advantages of exercising in your own garden are that you can do it whenever it suits you. And you can make a fool of yourself with no one but your teenagers to laugh at you.
Sporty families are another breed altogether, boasting organisation and discipline, while taking genuine enjoyment in participating in shared interests together. Sailing is ideal for families with children aged eight upwards, it costs about €100 per week and a small Optimist sailing boat can be bought for about €3,000 with accessories. Alistair Rumball, director of the Irish National Sailing School in Dun Laoghaire, will spend this week in Malta with his daughter Alyson, the top Irish girl in the under-12 division, competing with sailors from all over the world in the Optimist category. Alyson's elder brother, Kevin (15), has already sailed for Ireland, and came in the top five out of 60 countries in the international Optimist championships in Corpus Christi Texas this year.
Alyson and Kevin say they love sailing because they meet other teenagers from all over the world, they feel self-sufficient and enjoy a sense of achievement whether they win or not. And their mother, Muriel Rumball, principal of Glenageary/Killiney National School, welcomes the chance for some time to herself at weekends even if that means cleaning the house. "I carried them for nine months, I breastfed them, brought them to national school, now it's Alistair's turn," says Muriel.
She hears other parents worrying about alcohol and drugs, but she has never had such concerns with her own children, whose social lives revolve around sailing. Alistair finds that he can be involved in his children's lives, while also allowing them independence.
Another dad who has shown by his example is Christy O'Connor, the champion golfer. He has four sporting grandsons, including twins Adrian and Matthew, just turning 12, who have won All Ireland honours in Gaelic football, cricket and rugby. Grandson Conor D'Arcy coaches cricket in Clontarf, while another grandson, Oran D'Arcy, was a trialist in Leinster Schools rugby.
Conor says none of the boys has ever felt pushed and that they have their parents to thank for ferrying them around from one fixture to the next. Conor's father also finds time to manage Clontarf under-20s rugby. Their mother, Anne Marie, Christy's daughter, has never complained about being what sometimes seems to amount to a full-time chauffeur. Beneath it all is a family ethos that sport is an essential part of living.
For many families, skiing is the ultimate sport. Much more than gliding down hills of virgin snow, the social aspect of the sport means that children, teenagers and adults all have somebody to talk to at the end of a day on the piste. Eircom sales representative Bridge Ryan from Dublin, whose four children have been skiing since the age of seven, takes two or three family ski holidays a year. She says that the best thing about a ski holiday is the après-ski, where children, teenagers, parents and grandparents compare notes and enjoy conversation - often in French, German and English all at once. For mother, it's pure luxury since the families stay in hotels with full board. On December 28th, Bridge Ryan, her husband, her grandchild and four children (now aged 20 to 28) will head off to Austria with Topflight (01-2401700).
In peak season (say February 8th) for a half board hotel ski holiday in Austria, expect to pay about €3,200 for a family of four with two children aged five to 11, excluding tax and insurance; plus €1,260 for ski packs and lift passes. In January, a special offer in Val D'Isere, France, in self-catering apartments, costs €1,516 for a family of four, excluding tax and insurance, plus the cost of the ski pack (€1,480 for the family, including ski school).
IF YOUR family have never skied before, consider learning first on the dry slopes at Kilternan, Co Dublin, where a yearly membership costs €480 plus a €140 entry fee.
The ecologically aware - and wealthy - family who want to experience first-hand Amazonian rain forests and Antarctic ice are a vibrant new market being catered for by Venture 4, part of Stein Travel. These Eco World Tours are for families who want to stay in four-star hotels while enjoying white water rafting, sea kayaking, canopy walking, birdwatching and diving. Destinations include Costa Rica, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and the Antarctic. Expect to pay about €4,000 per person for the holiday of a lifetime.
Gym membership is becoming a way for the family to share leisure time together, without being in each other's way. The Westwood Club in Clontarf and Leopardstown has introduced Fitzone for teenagers aged 10 upwards. The gym equipment is scaled down to teen-sized bodies and the gym is constantly supervised. Dee Delaney, Fitzone area manager, says that instructors do not weigh the teenagers and emphasise getting fit, rather than competition. This is ideal for teens who do not participate in team sports, says Delaney. Westwood offers teenagers a club atmosphere and a safe place to meet friends. Parents can go off to their own part of the club to swim, play tennis, squash or whatever. An adult membership costs €200 entryfee, plus €70 per month. The adult's teenage children can use Fitzone for €25 per month, with no entry fee. If a parent does not belong to Westwood, the teen's fee is €30 per month with no entry fee. For information call 01-2893208.
Non-sporting parents with low budgets need not feel like failures, however. Get going as soon as your children are old enough to hold a racquet, a bat or a ball, says Prof O'Brien. Do a sport you enjoy, then allow your children to gradually grow into it. Don't turn around one day and wonder why your 12-year-old is a sofa dumpling, just like you.