Family breakdown a barrier to weekend sport

Children from broken homes are missing out on weekend sport as they juggle time between parents - with fears the long-term consequences could be an increase in diabetes and childhood obesity.

Sport and Recreation New Zealand (Sparc), which is responsible for promoting physical activity among New Zealanders, says many custody arrangements require children to spend time between parents, leaving the youngsters unable to commit to weekend sport.

Adding to this problem was the fact some sports teams were reluctant to use players who could not turn up every week. With government statistics showing nearly half of all mothers spend time as a solo parent before they turn 50, health and leisure groups say there could be significant consequences for New Zealanders' future health if the issue is not addressed now.

Sparc spokeswoman Deb Hurdle said many parents made plans for their children when they visited on the weekend - and that often didn't include watching a netball or rugby match.

"The time is precious, but it's the children who are missing out. We need to get on top of this issue before it becomes entrenched," she said.

If the issue was not tackled, Sparc believed it could mean huge health costs in the future with rising obesity and diabetes.

Ms Hurdle said during a bitter break-up parents often argued over the exact times a child had to be returned, or how much sports shoes cost - even who could take them to sport on the weekend.

"The mother can see that as exclusively her role and does not want the father taking her to netball and so on."

But Ms Hurdle said schools were also partially responsible with some having inflexible policies towards children playing if they missed training or the last week's match.

She believed those rules should be relaxed to ensure "we don't end up with a nation of grossly overweight people".

Auckland University of Technology's professor of health science Gregory Kolt said it was not surprising that children from split families were not playing as much sport as they should. "There's a lot of pressure on children in families where the mother and father live separately. Often they are living in different houses for different parts of the week," he said.

The Auckland Primary Principals Association president, Anne Malcolm, said the way weekend sport was run depended entirely on the policy of individual schools.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY