4. A child-friendly approach so that women can bring their children with them to the venue.

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Mihaela Onofras
Keymaster

8 November 2018 at 15:46

Post count: 13
#679
The Polisportiva Corbetta 2015 ASD deeply thinks that is very important to optimize the time organization of the family in the fields of work, social life, culture and sport. It is essential to remove the objective barriers relati the family time management. In particular, the Association considers essential to became aware of the importance of sport practice in order to improve quality and life expectancy. It is so important to include all kind of women in sport activities such as Working women, middle age women, disabled women, mom Working.

A small starting point is to focus on the working women and sharing the following proposals to exchange opinions in order to facilitate sport practice and to achieve common satisfaction.

Proposed questions for disucssion:
1. Is it useful to put in place structures that can look after the children while the mother carries out the sport practice?
2. Do you consider a good strategy to optimize the family time by scheduling the project simultaneously with the children ‘s activity?
3. Do you think the figure of the partner is focal to allow the woman to have a correct access to the sport practice in the evening time?
4. Do you think is an incentive to practice a sport activity together with children?
5. Please provide dood examples and initiatives. What are the facilities and services offered at the local level?
6. What are the local and national policies and incentives in this aspect?
Caterina Dada
Member

8 February 2019 at 18:21

Post count: 42

#811

1. Is it useful to put in place structures that can look after the children while the mother carries out the sport practice?

Having few time is one of the major causes of lower women practice of sport. For this reason, all those measures that decrease the time restrictions given by work and family and make it easy and uncomplicated for them to join in your sport is likely to increase women’s sport practice. If there are not the facilities to offer something like a crèche, mothers can be mobilised to share childcare.
As shared by the Sofia European Capital of Sport Foundation, sometimes offering childcare is not sufficient because mothers do not trust the person in charge of the childcare (students). For this reason, it is important to choose a person that can be “objectively” trusted. Besides this, placing the childcare near enough that mothers are able to see it and giving many details about the service can help mothers trusting the service and plan the activity inside their restricted time schedule.

Caterina Dada
Member

8 February 2019 at 18:23

Post count: 42

#812

2. Do you consider a good strategy to optimize the family time by scheduling the project simultaneously with the children ‘s activity?

As in the case of childcare, organizing children’s activities at the same time of women activities can help those women with young children to take part in the activity. This measure can meet more easily the quest of trust by part of the parents. On the other side, mothers and children could experience difficulties in finding their preferred activities in the same time slot in case the offer is not very varied.

It is important that also fathers are offered the possibilities to do sport at the same time of their children. This would indirectly benefit women that wouldn’t need to take care of the children in that range of time and so will have more free time, that they could decide to spend in doing sport.

Caterina Dada
Member

8 February 2019 at 18:25

Post count: 42

#813

3. Do you think the figure of the partner is focal to allow the woman to have a correct access to the sport practice in the evening time?

The support of the partner is essential to allow women to attend evening sport, both for the concrete help in taking care of the children and for the psychological wellbeing of the couple. On the other side, for all those cases in which partner’s support does not come spontaneously from the beginning, campaign raising awareness on the positive effects on health of an active life and the accessibility of the sport venue (in terms of distance and of fee) are crucial to engage women in getting started.

Caterina Dada
Member

8 February 2019 at 18:26

Post count: 42

#814

4. Do you think is an incentive to practice a sport activity together with children?

Practicing a sport with children can be an incentive for mothers to practice a sport. At the same time, there factors as children age, mothers’ flexibility and reaction to stress, welcoming or restricting environment and children’s temperament that highly influence the choice of the mothers to take part to such an activity. Some of these factors can be tackled by organising these activities in spaces that are sufficiently large for the 2 groups not to bother each other but at the same time keep on being on eye sight, having a good soundproofing. Encouraging the adoption of some informal rules to be followed during the session is also key to make the experience pleasant for every participant while at the same time ensuring enough flexibility for mothers to take care of their children in case it is needed.

Caterina Dada
Member

8 February 2019 at 18:27

Post count: 42

#815

5. Please provide dood examples and initiatives. What are the facilities and services offered at the local level?

Among the many initiatives organised worldwide to engage women and their children in sport, in Australia a 3-month programme delivered enjoyable fitness activities in local parks for women and their families.
Always in Australia, Active Mums Noosa” offered 19 group activities over the 20 weeks including activities such as mums and bubs yoga, pilates and box fit. The popularity of this program can in part be attributed to the involvement of the target group in the program planning. A large number of mums completed an online survey indicating their preferences for days, times and location of program activities. The council also involved new mums’ groups in focus group style sessions to provide input into the program planning.

Yoga with babies has gained more and more popularity. Besides allowing the mother to take care of their children while doing sport, the camaraderie of postnatal classes often helps offset the sometimes isolating and disorienting stage of early parenthood.
In France, a remarkably high number of gyms advertises courses for mother and children with experienced personnel taking care of the physical activities of the two.

The growing interest in the issue can be observed by the number of blogs and articles that can be found online on how to combine childcare and sport. Femme Actuelle Magazine, for example, offers an article with a list of sports that mothers can comfortably practice with children (https://www.femmeactuelle.fr/enfant/enfants/quel-sport-pratiquer-avec-mon-enfant-2024875)

Caterina Dada
Member

8 February 2019 at 18:29

Post count: 42

#816

6. What are the local and national policies and incentives in this aspect?

As it can be read on the Women and Sport report by the UN, many international conferences have been organized on the topic of women and sport and every of them developed tools and recommendation in order to strengthen women participation in sport.
Back in 1995, the Beijing Platform for Action, adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, provided important policy recommendations on women, gender equality and sport already. Among the other aspects, the Platform calls for the creation and support of programmes in the education system, workplace and community to make opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity available to girls and women of all ages, on the same basis as they are made available to men and boys.

In 2002, in view of the Third World Conference on Women and Sport the Montreal Tool Kit was developed as a reference manual containing 20 tools to help women activists working to increase women’s participation in sports.
More recently, women inclusion in sport activities has been recognised has being a driver for the achievement of many of the SDG goals.
Nonetheless, the need to ensure the same access to sport for mothers has still not been fully addressed by international conferences. National policies and especially ground initiatives seem to be more advanced in the topic.

An example of a national initiatives is The Get Out, Get Active program from the Queensland Government, in Australia. It provides funding for projects that will deliver community-based sport and recreation activities that increase opportunities for participation by women and girls who are either currently inactive, or would otherwise benefit from further participation. (https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/sports/funding/organisations/getoutgetactive)

Mila
Participant

6 March 2019 at 16:17

Post count: 3

#829

For Sofia “Child-friendly care” includes the notion of “family-friendly”, facilitating bonding between kids and their mothers, facilitating contacts between the child and his or her mother.
After taking part in our events and happenings, the mothers exited, happy and tired. So in the meantime the kids have been animated and become also exited and tired and the most important – willing to come and paly again. Therefore, these become a strong impulse to the mothers for coming again.
Our aim is to improve the quality and quantity of sports participation to women in providing suitable conditions for them to come and participate with their children.
A good example from Sofia

Повече възможности за родителите в активностите на София – евростолица на спорта

Rosa Llorens
Participant

3 April 2019 at 9:29

Post count: 12

#902

1. Is it useful to put in place structures that can look after the children while the mother carries out the sport practice?

Undoubtedly we think it is very useful to create structures where mothers (and fathers) can practice physical activities while their children are attended and/or practicing simultaneously some sportive activities, workshop or simply doing their homework. Logistically, it is a good way to optimize family time, but it is not simple, itwill depend since the age of children and if the parents look for a specific activity of sportive practice for themselves as the activity to be developed by their children.

Rosa Llorens
Participant

3 April 2019 at 9:29

Post count: 12

#903

4. Do you think is an incentive to practice a sport activity together with children?

It may be an incentive for families that they usually do not practice sports and the initiative to practice together with their children can be an incentive. However, for parents who practice sports regularly and currently they can not continue to do sport for logistical problems, it will be a solution not an incentive.
We agree about sports practice together is positive, it is known that it improves the emotional bond as well as being beneficial to have time with the children when usually the lack of time removes us of these whiles. But we also believe that ideal for the father / mother would be to have time at least twice each week for doing an activity for their own interest.
So, we understand the family practice together as an activity to enjoy the weekend, share a family hobby or enjoying occasional events (family races, family bike ride, tournaments of parent and child…)
Rosa Llorens
Participant

3 April 2019 at 9:30

Post count: 12
#904
5. Please provide dood examples and initiatives. What are the facilities and services offered at the local level?

There are several activities that are offered at local level for practice parents and children simultaneously:
In the range of 0 to 3 years old, there are a couple of equipments that offer aquatic activities for babies and psychomotor classes. Being part of these groups help parents to have self-confidence, meet other families that are in the same stage so it generates security and motivates to them to continue doing the activity later.
Until three years old, it is easy to find clubs or civic centers that offer sportive activities with family, but what happens after that? It is very common for the boy or girl continue practicing “their sport” and test news in extra-curricular classes.
After 3 years old, many sports centers are already incorporating activities for parents who want to continue doing sport with the whole family, such as swimming classes, zumba, aquagym, yoga, tennis … Participating in these activities benefits both adults as little ones. The joint participation is very enriching because favors that the whole family spend moments of fun, collaboration, relaxation, game and bonding that will help their later on how to do and be at home, as well as being a source of physical and psychological health (increases self-esteem, improves psychomotricity, strengths in social relationships…).

Other option that some private sport center offers is the play center service: while parents are at the sports center, their children are attended by a monitoring service. Usually during this time, children make free games, craft workshops or take the opportunity to do the homework of the school.

Everything is different options to help parents stop practicing. The good habits that we want to teach to our children begin in oneself, parents are the mirror where our children are reflected, and it is very important to educate with the example.
- This reply was modified 5 years ago by Rosa Llorens.
irsbologna
Participant

5 April 2019 at 15:10

Post count: 5

#916

Please provide good examples and initiatives. What are the facilities and services offered at the local level?

Women tend to have less leisure time than men as they take on the greater burden of responsibility for housework, childcare and care of elderly or infirm relatives. This is one of the key reasons for not taking part in sport. Women also cite lack of childcare facilities as a major factor discouraging them from taking part in sport and physical activity. This means that , from a policy point of view, it is crucial to investigate options for the provision of childcare, or help with childcare costs, and adopt a child-friendly approach so that women can bring their children with them to the venue. Other facilities and services could also be that of providing crèche facilities and/or providing classes for toddlers and children, either with or separate from their parents, so that the adults can bring their children along when they go to exercise. For example, parents and baby aerobic classes could incorporate exercises like lunges with pushchairs, encouraging participants to see how they can incorporate physical activity into their daily lives. Finally, making physical activity a part of the working day can help address the lack of time so many women experience. For example, lunchtime walking, running or exercise groups, supported by the employer, can help staff to fit physical activity into a busy working day. A good example of practice could be “Mums on the run” initiative. It is a program designed with a special focus on the needs of mums, which offers guidance, advice and solutions to help mums across the country in enjoying the physiological, social and psychological benefits of getting out and being active. The possibility of taking the baby to the class in the buggy and the flexible organization of the trainings make easier for participants combining childcare with physical exercises.
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