Get kids moving

Thanks for “The Stroller Habit” (Sept. 8). As a children’s movement specialist, I travel the country promoting the value of physical activity in children’s lives and education, and I’m constantly amazed by the stories I hear. Early childhood professionals, for example, are worried -- with good reason -- because parents, in their haste, are carrying their children into and out of preschool and removing and putting on their outerwear for them.

I realize we all have far too much to do in the course of a day. But parents must be made aware of the harm they may be doing by contributing to their children’s sedentary lifestyles, and by not letting them do for themselves. Parents would never consider speaking for their children, nor should they take over their physical chores.

Rae Pica

Center Barnstead, N.H.