'Don't jump in the puddles!' seems to be a typical phrase for mothers before they send their children out in the rain. However, are these mothers putting their children at a higher risk for non-terminal illnesses? Newer studies show that jumping in puddles, contrary to common belief, could actually benefit one's health rather than cause illness. According to the L.L.A.M.A (Local Limited Aiton Medical Association), mothers across the country should begin to allow child access to rain puddles for improvement in health, hygiene, exercise, and even homework, with benefits for the parents in every aspect.
Firstly, puddle jumping is great for maintaining one's health. As quoted from the book Fun Ways for Your Kids to Keep Healthy: Outdoors Edition, author Kidz R. Wyld says: 'Puddle jumping induces higher levels of activity in the endorphins in a human body; especially children' (pg 134). For those who are not sure, the endorphins create an antidepressant of a sort, which (by keeping away depression) actually improves your chances of not getting sick. Therefore, puddle jumping can help ward off sickness by making the kids happy and keeping them from getting mad at their parents for saying no to jumping in puddles because depressed or angry people are more likely to get sick than happy healthy people. Some parents may be thinking 'how do you account for the soaking wet clothes which will give them death of cold?' Well, this leads right into the second reason:
Puddle jumping also helps improve the children's hygiene. Now, at first glance, it may seem like jumping in puddles would make them dirtier, but it actually helps urge the children to change their clothing after jumping in puddles. If they just go out in the rain, they'll get wet, sure; but will they be willing to change clothes after just getting sprinkled on? Not likely. This would be more likely to give them a cold because they are staying in their wet clothes. But if they jump in puddles, they will get rained on from above and they will get soaked to the bone from the feet up too. This as you can imagine is not the most comfortable situation in the world, and the children will most likely want to change their clothes'even those slightly ripe 3-day old undies'which are now thoroughly soaked. Parents have found themselves shouting 'Thank you puddles!' after discovery of this phase of our new sport. Yes, the clothes sometimes get dirty, but as long as the parent specifies rain puddles instead of mud puddles, parents should be able to avoid that problem fairly easily. As Marilyn Banks of Seattle, WA said in her blog 'my little boy never wanted to change out of his comfortable clothing, but after trying the PJA [Puddle Jumpers of America], he realized how good it feels to change into new clothes every day, and he's been wearing clothes he didn't even know he had!' (par. 20). Puddle jumping is definitely the way to go to see these kinds of improvements in children'and we're not even close to done yet!
Of course, the exercise aspect of this situation cannot be forgotten. Sending a child out in the rain with permission to jump in puddles for the first time ever will cause them to 'use up more energy in the rain than they have in videogames in the last month' (Wyld pg. 136)! What parent doesn't want their children to exercise? Many parents attempt other ways to get their children to exercise, many of which crash and burn when put to the test. It's more than likely that the kids will forget to walk the dog will 'accidentally' lose that healthy snack bar and 'find' that candy stash. A game though? In the rain? That's an opportunity that the kids grab before their parents have opportunity to say no again. When they come in from their newfound activity, they'll be so tired that after changing clothes and maybe getting some cider or cocoa, they've been known to plop and sleep for a while! This is not only good for the kids health of course, but it can be good for the parents as well! While the kids sleep, there's no end to what parents can get done for theirs and their child's benefit.
However, when the kids are doing homework, that's another matter entirely; but, to the parent's surprise, puddle jumping also helps their child's grade levels in the long run! Think about it this way: if the kids are trying to get a shallow puddle to splash really high without having to jump really high, that's physics! Testing out theories concerning the desired effect to the amount of effort required and other various formulas and processes will improve their ability to apply what they learn in school to real life and their future. That's a skill that all parents wish for their children to obtain in life. And even though they will be outside for sometime when they might be doing homework otherwise, there's an 85% probability that they'll be more willing to sit down to do homework later after tiring themselves out and getting bored of activity (Aiton pg 40). How much easier is that? The parents don't even have to tire them out themselves!
Taking all of these facts, opinions, and circumstances into effect, it seems that the option of greatest benefit for all is that the new best activity for rainy days is puddle jumping. Why? Because it benefits parents and their children's immune system, personal hygiene, exercise habits, and even school abilities. What parent doesn't want their child to benefit in ways such as these with a single activity: Puddle Jumping--The new rainy day workout!