Play is the antidote. Not Catching Up, Weighing Up, or Sizing Up.

As children and families in the UK prepare for the end of the Summer school term (and the conclusion to another tumultuous academic year disrupted by lockdown), debate continues as to the best solutions to address some of the lasting impacts on young people. Happy Marlo Founder, Rebekah Clark, believes the answer is to keep it simple and focus on one of the best four-letter words around.

“Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself characters that our future needs.” James L. Hymes Jr

My heart sank last week as I read reports that primary school children in England are to be regularly weighed from September, in reaction to government fears that the pandemic has caused a spike in the UK’s child obesity problem. I then got angry. Sometimes it seems like those in authority are almost determined to find ways to make the current stresses and strains our young people are already navigating, even worse.

This topic probably has a particular sting for me. I was a ‘bonny’ baby, who developed into a young girl who would never be described as a ‘slip’, to a teenager who while not obese was definitely on the larger side of her peers. It’s no accident that a lasting memory I hold of secondary school is that of the whole class being weighed in science lesson, with each child’s individual weight being recorded for full view and analysis. I was mortified to discover I was the heaviest weighing girl, with my name floating amongst the sea of my strapping adolescent male classmates on the list of shame. There was no good reason for this exercise that I could see, other than to serve up embarrassment and encourage ridicule for those who were apparently tipping the scales in the wrong direction.

It’s not rocket science to imagine that after sixteen months of actively being encouraged (told) to sit at home and eat snacks (well maybe we weren’t told to do the latter), that quite a few of us have gained some lockdown pounds. This doesn’t mean any of us, not least our children, need to face regular weigh-ins after the longest cheat day in history. We don’t need to weigh, we need to play!

Young Minds, the UK’s leading children and young people’s mental health charity describes children developing unhealthy eating behaviours as a coping mechanism for academic stress. Another key trigger is that of peer pressure and body comparison, resulting in young people having severe feelings of low self-worth. A Guardian investigation in December 2020 found the number of young people seeking emergency support for eating disorders had reached an all-time high. In this context, why would we even risk making matters worse by bringing weight front and centre in the school environment. In good conscious, how can regular weigh-ins be viewed as a priority?

We’re still not quite out of the woods with the pandemic, but as we edge nearer to ‘freedom day’ in the UK, children need to have time to heal, reflect, reconnect and to get back into healthy routines without pressure of judgement or interference by those in authority. To quote my new Instagram friend @blossoming_autism:

· Stop unnecessary testing at school — guess what? it’s stressing the kids out

· Stop banging the ‘catch up on the curriculum’ drum — also stressing the kids out

· Put an end to children being forced to sit at desks for hours at a time — imagine what the effects of a bit more movement and fresh air might be…

· Let them run around outside more. Like, a lot more.

Amen to that I say! It’s really that simple. We need more play in our lives. All of us. But particularly the little humans.