--- title: How to Help Kids to Stay Fit Even if They're Not Athletic description: Tips to help kids understand that fitness is is own reward canonical: https://time.com/4193105/how-to-help-your-kids-stay-fit-even-if-theyre-not-athletic/ author: Carey Wallace article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-25T20:54:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:36.009Z og:title: How to Help Kids to Stay Fit Even if They're Not Athletic og:description: The key is to rethink how we look at fitness og:url: https://time.com/4193105/how-to-help-your-kids-stay-fit-even-if-theyre-not-athletic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e6aaff3757d5c05/69887a89524fc0f481df6716/kids-fitness1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5401 og:image:height: 3038 og:image:alt: 482195037 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Help Kids to Stay Fit Even if They're Not Athletic twitter:description: The key is to rethink how we look at fitness twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e6aaff3757d5c05/69887a89524fc0f481df6716/kids-fitness1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Help Your Kids Stay Fit Even if They're Not Athletic > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Carey Wallace](https://time.com/author/carey-wallace/)  ## Carey Wallace Jan 25, 2016 8:54 PM UTC  Two children running in snow Two children running in snow Roberto Westbrook—Getty Images/Image Source  by [Carey Wallace](https://time.com/author/carey-wallace/)  ## Carey Wallace Jan 25, 2016 8:54 PM UTC Getting fit is a classic New Year’s resolution. But ironically, New Year’s commitments to get fit come in the dead of winter–when many of us would just like to be curled up on the couch under a thick blanket. And some kids just aren’t that into sports. So how can parents encourage kids to stay fit during the winter months–and throughout life? The key, says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, obesity medicine and nutrition physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center and Harvard Medical School, is to reorient how we look at fitness. [Parents are busy. They only want the good stuff. Sign up for Time for Parents weekly newsletter here](http://time.com/t4parents) “For a lot of people,” Stanford says, “fitness only means weight loss. We need to look at it as a way of improving our overall quality of life, longevity, and happiness.” And research, she says, supports the idea that better fitness leads to better life: people who are physically fit tend to have a lower risk of chronic disease and depression. And students who participate in athletics even tend to score higher academically. A lifetime of fitness, Stanford says, starts in childhood: If parents “instill these ideas of being physically fit really early in life, they will only perpetuate themselves” into adulthood. [Read More: Parents’ Debt Affects Kids, But Not Always in a Bad Way](https://time.com/nextadvisor/loans/personal-loans/how-do-personal-loans-work/) Parents can set **_elementary kids_** on the path to a lifetime of fitness by asking them what physical activities they enjoy doing. “Whatever you enjoy is what you will do,” Stanford says. And even “very young kids can tell you what they like and don’t like.” Parents can also set a tone for young kids by staying fit themselves. If kids see their parent going out for a run, they see it as a thing humans do. **_Middle school kids_**_,_ Stanford says, are starting to notice their bodies–and that some students are more athletically gifted than others. At this age, Stanford says, it’s crucial for parents to “encourage kids who aren’t standing out not to give up on whatever they really enjoy doing.” And even for top athletes, Stanford says, parents should emphasize that the ultimate payoff of fitness isn’t winning in a competitive environment: the reward is being healthy and happy. **_High school kids_**are on the cusp of adulthood, when school teams and classes will no longer be there to encourage fitness. So it’s a good time for parents to help kids develop habits that will help them stay fit throughout life. One way, Stanford says, is to help kids find fitness opportunities beyond school, like local leagues and rec centers that have fitness activities for all ages. High school kids are also old enough to start taking responsibility for how much exercise they get: ideally, one hour a day. And, Stanford says, parents can encourage busy students that all that exercise doesn’t have to happen at once. “You can do this in spurts,” she says. “Ten minutes here, 20 minutes here.” The bottom line, at any age, says Stanford: let kids know that being active is about much more than meeting weight or competitive goals. The real reason to stay fit throughout life is “to produce a happier, healthier them.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4193105/how-to-help-your-kids-stay-fit-even-if-theyre-not-athletic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4193105/how-to-help-your-kids-stay-fit-even-if-theyre-not-athletic/"},"headline":"How to Help Your Kids Stay Fit Even if They're Not Athletic","datePublished":"2016-01-25T20:54:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:36.009Z","description":"The key is to look at fitness a different way","url":"https://time.com/4193105/how-to-help-your-kids-stay-fit-even-if-theyre-not-athletic/","keywords":["Living","Parenting","fitness","Athletes","health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e6aaff3757d5c05/69887a89524fc0f481df6716/kids-fitness1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Carey Wallace","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/carey-wallace/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e6aaff3757d5c05/69887a89524fc0f481df6716/kids-fitness1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"482195037","caption":"482195037","creditText":"Roberto Westbrook—Getty Images/Image Source","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4193105/how-to-help-your-kids-stay-fit-even-if-theyre-not-athletic/","name":"How to Help Your Kids Stay Fit Even if They're Not Athletic"}}]}] ```