The family that walks together …
Strolls easy way to bond, pacify group emotions
A frenzied pace — that is how Ellie Pojarska describes her family’s pre-pandemic life. She and her husband commuted to their jobs fulltime, their preteen daughter kept super busy in dance classes and their teenage son split his time between music and tennis lessons. The Belmont, Calif., family’s evenings were a jumble of pickups and drop-offs.
When the pandemic hit, that stopped. Suddenly, the frenzy was gone.
“We were worried that they weren’t getting enough exercise,” says Pojarska, 44, “and spending so much time in front of Zoom.” Although Pojarska still leaves the house to teach high school (both in person and online), her husband, Rado Iliev, 42, who works for a tech company, temporarily switched to working from home. With less commute time and after-school activities cancelled, “we started to walk.” All of them, together.
They have come to embrace this daily activity, about an hour at a time. The kids — Raya, 11, and Sava, 15 — “now demand the walks even when sometimes my husband and I feel too tired at the end of a long day,” Pojarska says, adding these outings have become vital to her family’s sanity.
Experts agree that family walks are valuable, for many reasons.
“One outcome of this COVID pandemic has been the increased recognition and acknowledgment of the importance of physical activity and the importance of outdoor play for children and youth,” says Guy Faulkner, a professor of kinesiology at the University of British Columbia and principal investigator at its Population Physical Activity Lab.
For the past year, children’s activity options have been limited, with sports, camps and other activities curtailed, but family walks are a solution worth keeping even after we return to something looking more like normal, Faulkner says. “It doesn’t require equipment. It doesn’t cost any money, and you can do it wherever you live if the environment is safe and appealing.”
Walking can help reduce people’s risk for heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Even walks as short as three minutes can help improve the health and metabolism of children. Commuting to school on one’s own power, including by foot, is associated with lower rates of unhealthy weight in children.
Nature-filled locations — whether green spaces like parks or blue spaces like lakeside or riverside trails — can help both body and mind, such as reducing the risk of stroke and improving sleep quality and life satisfaction. A walk in a park can reduce stress hormones and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Even the sounds of nature lower stress and elicit positive emotions.
An urban setting will do, too. “I think benefits are in any environment, really,” Faulkner says. “Children develop their wayfaring (and) navigation skills and their attachment to the neighbourhood can also increase.”
When the pandemic initially shut down the trail near Pojarska’s home, the family explored the streets of their neighbourhood, “which we kind of knew, but it turns out not really,” Pojarska says. “We have different routes now, and we have names for the routes.”
The biggest perk for Pojarska, though, is the closeness her family has found on their walks. “We actually talk so much more than we ever did before,” she says. “We don’t pull out our phone when we’re walking, which is always the danger at home.”
Gloria González-lópez, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, says family walks are a great way to “trigger different kinds of conversations” and to do some bonding that “doesn’t have to be too intense.”
“Family walks give us a chance to connect with our family in creative ways,” she says.
This strong connection can continue far into the future. As a child, Gonzálezlópez went for walks with her own parents and siblings. She says, “I actually get teary-eyed when thinking about it because I treasure those moments.”
With kids bored and restless, it may be easy to introduce family walks. “They’ve reached a certain threshold where I think many kids actually do want to go outside,” Faulkner says.
Of course, there may be challenges. Parents’ work schedules may give them little time to participate — especially as remote workers get vaccinated and may start heading back to the office. As Faulkner mentioned, some places may not feel safe. A stroll beside a noisy, polluting freeway may not be ideal. People with physical disabilities may have to select routes that allow for wheelchairs or walkers.
But for those who can take it on, a family walk is a great activity. “Heading outside is good for you, it’s healthy for you, it gets your mind off of being isolated,” says Kenneth Rubin, a professor of human development and quantitative methodology at the University of Maryland. “Everybody’s going to feel all the better for it.”