Get Active!

Firstly apologies for the massive gap since my last Blog.

I do have an excuse! I've been on Brownie Pack Holiday!

And it actually fits in rather nicely with the today's hot topic involving children and the media - obesity.

The media are frequently blamed for our nation's ever-expanding waist bands.

Whilst advertising fast food, and promoting couch-hogging as an afternoon activity are obvious ways in which the media can be seen to play a part in childhood obesity, children's television can also be used to promote healthier lifestyles.

Here I return to one of my key 'mantras' of children's television.

Show children what life has to offer!

Show them the challenges, and they will seek them out for themselves.

Last week my Brownies were abseiling off towers, wriggling through man-made caves, and firing bows and arrows.

What they were also doing was burning a heap of calories, but if you asked them the purpose of their activities, they would have told you 'fun'.

Healthy activity can be fun - you just need to show kids that it is.

That's where shows like Blue Peter, my holy grail of children's tv, come in.

When the presenters run marathons, or go sailing or dancing, kids want to follow them.

All we need to do to to reduce the negative links between media and child obesity is to increase the number of active, insiring children's programmes.

Living a healthy life does not mean living a boring one, or one without tv!

Children are NOT accessories!

Whilst the media today is reviling Victoria Beckham's decision to stay at the Ritz on the day of the visit by the Diana inquest jury, it is an earlier impromptu photo shoot which has my blood boiling.

At the weekend Victoria was photographed arriving in LAX.

Shielded as ever by bug-like sunglasses, and towering on steep stiletto heels, 'Posh Spice' was poised and ready for photos from any angle.

However rather than modelling the latest Chloe bag, or Louis Vuitton luggage, Victoria's accessory of choice was her son.

Painfully immaculate, and disturbingly fashionable, 'Cruz' came with detachable golfing jumper, miniature hand luggage bag, and front page smile.

This wasn't a photo of a mother and child.

This was a photo of a brand, a product.

Whilst behind closed doors Victoria Beckham may well be the model mother, in front of the cameras she is merely a model.

Any parent walking with their child through a busy airport would be carrying them on their hip, or at least carrying the luggage themselves.

Had you simply seen half of the photo, it would have been perfectly plasible to assume Victoria was there on her own.

There was no ounce of maternal affection, no slip of the sleek, well practiced media facade.

But then the key relationship in the photograph is not that of Victoria and Cruz, it is the one between Victoria and the paparazzi.