Education top priority for HK mothers
Despite Sars, Hong Kong mothers still rank education above health as the top priority for their children, a study commissioned for a pharmaceutical chain has found.
Forty-one per cent of 606 mothers surveyed by Watsons between June 29 and July 4 ranked their child's school performance as their No1 concern, with health second.
About 28 per cent said their child's health was a concern, 9 per cent said behaviour was important, and 6 per cent believed their child's emotional stability was the key, the survey showed.
'Since Sars, people pay attention to health. It is surprising that it seems developing the children mentally turned out to be mothers' priority. We wish to remind parents that their children's lifestyle - good diet and exercise - is as important as giving them tuition,' said Margaret Lau Po-chu, Watsons' pharmacist director.
Stanley Hui Sai-chuen, associate professor of the department of sports sciences and physical education at the Chinese University, said the survey found that 29 per cent of children did not exercise at all, getting only 70 to 80 minutes of exercise a week from their physical education lessons.
'They will develop obesity and if they do not exercise the body fat level will accumulate in the body at a rate of 1 per cent every year from the time a baby eats solid food. So a 10-year-old would already have 10 per cent blocked arteries.'
