From Parents to Parents - Hamidah Binti Draman

An Active Lifestyle, Together As A Family

Written by Nur Sarah Mohd Hisham

This article is part of Active Parents’ From Parents to Parents series, brought to you in collaboration with Republic Polytechnic, School of Management and Communication. 

Leading an active lifestyle is important to ensure we stay healthy. What about involving our families and having an active lifestyle together?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we all had to start living with a ‘new normal’. Having to wear face masks, maintain social distancing, and experience a significant decrease in social time, this may get difficult and weary for some. However, Mdm Hamidah found a silver lining in the situation and like many others, she has taken up an active lifestyle and ensure that every member in the family keeps healthy and spend time with each other.

Mdm Hamidah, mother of 4 children aged youngest at 5 years old and oldest at 17, is always on top of her game when it comes to making sure that her children leads an active lifestyle. She frequents the park with her family and uses available space to play sports and spend time together. Coming from a sports background, Mdm Hamidah used to play volleyball in secondary school and college and participated in other sports during her free time. She encourages her children to actively participate in physical activities and hope that they are able to enjoy an active lifestyle, as she did.  

“I feel that living an active lifestyle is crucial to staying healthy, and it is important to start young to build healthy habits and routines,” she added. She takes strolls in the park after sending her children to school, which gives her the time to relax and take in the morning air.

Although fostering an active lifestyle is important to her, there are challenges that she faces when trying to plan activities with her family, due to differing schedules and COVID-19 has proved a further impediment. She shared, “COVID restricted our ability to go out and exercise at the park. Though we could maintain an active lifestyle at home through home exercises, we prefer playing sports outdoor as it allows us to bond better and have more fun together as a family.”

From her personal experience, she feels that families are too busy with their work life or school load, and she hopes that everyone can set aside a day during the weekends to spend time and play sports together, like how she does it with her family.

“As an active family, we hope to achieve a consistent active lifestyle together. And through the activities, we hope to bond better and have fun together as a family.”