TG Escapes Blog

Could a Garden Escape have been good for the heart during half term?

by TG Escapes | Feb 26, 2015 | Blog, Residential

We are nearing the end of National Heart Month, designed to raise awareness of heart disease, its causes and its prevention. Along with poor diet and lack of exercise, one of the primary contributory factors is raised blood pressure. And one of the main culprits tempting our blood pressure to stray into elevated territory, is stress. So, with that in mind, how would you say your family’s half term break turned out? Was it a serene and joyful time in which the family bonded together whilst partaking of healthy outdoors activities and well balanced meals? Or was it an endless round of bickering bouts, failed efforts to limit screen time and copious, boredom induced comfort snacking?

Amongst the top ten causes of stress amongst children are lack of privacy and fighting with their siblings and, as any parent well knows, anxiety is highly contagious between family members. Stress, aside from the physical effect upon our blood pressure and heart, leads to an inability to think critically and to reason, effectively reducing us to make impulsive, faulty decisions…rather like the children themselves. And so it goes….it seems so much easier to cave in to the demands for another hour or six of sedentary screen surfing and open up another family sized bag of crisps or packet of biscuits. Poor hearts.

How much easier would it all be in the school holidays, if there was a little extra space, a place to which those family members craving privacy or somewhere to hang out with friends without the irritating intrusion of siblings, could escape? Or somewhere that younger kids can make as much noise as they like, cranking up the music volume while making merry and messy with paints, glue and glitter? A screen free zone, perhaps with a small kitchenette and a fridge loaded with healthy ingredients, where older children can enjoy rustling up their own snacks.

A Garden Escape, intelligently positioned in an unused corner of the garden, within sight of the house (just to ensure the merriment and mess making are within the bounds of civilized society) and preferably out of earshot…..are you feeling the plunge in blood pressure? And the chances are, that the uninterrupted views from inside the garden room, to outside, might even tempt the most assiduously plugged-in members of your brood to get out in the fresh air and do something radical, like kick a real live ball.

About the author

TG Escapes
Providing net-zero timber frame buildings since 2003. As a gold member of the Structural Timber Association we are fully compliant to design, manufacture and build giving us full control of the quality of all the timber components in our system.

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