Children and Dancing

DAY 3

Today our family holiday's ended, my brother and his family left our house, leaving it quite empty all of a sudden. It was an awesome family fun time together.

One of the things that my sisters and I did (I have two older sisters) with our little nieces and nephews was dancing. Well, it really can't be called dancing because we didn't know what we were doing in the least, but we twirled, waltzed, jumped, hopped, whirled, fell, laugh, kicked, dipped, and spun to lively tunes of Jingle Bells and other Christmas songs. You wouldn't believe what a workout we got!! We were so sweaty and our arms started to ache (the two year old and the three year old wanted to dance being carried), but we felt good after. And it was such good excersise for the children too, they begged to dance with us so many times after. It really lifted our spirits. Dancing is an all-over workout and it's fun too, even if you don't know what you're doing. Not only that, it's such a sweet feminine thing for little girls to do, twirl around in floaty skirts. They LOVE it!!!

I really think one of the things that a lot of busy mothers overlook is the fact that children can be involved in their excersising. This can be a fun time for children and their mommies! Not a burden, for heaven's sake!!! Turn on some fun tunes and dance with your children, go for long walks with your little ones (and then piggy back them home for a strong back and arms), jumprope with your girls, do sports with your boys (who'll love you for it!), and swing on the swings and play at the park for an afternoon. My two-year old niece loves doing pilates with me and she's TWO! She may not pay attention the whole time and she does it horribly wrong, but who cares? It's quality time and excersise.

You know, mommie's can have the best workout, or those nannies/babysitters/day who are taking care of children. Their arms are firm with holding babies, their backs strong from lifting children, and legs and thighs strong from crouching at their level. Being a mommy (who says there's just not enough time) doesn't mean you can't be fit.