While your daughter may be hoping for a new doll or a One Direction album this Christmas, one Conservative MP has suggested you ignore their pleas and opt to splash out on a gym membership instead.
Urging parents to encourage a love of fitness in their daughters, Nigel Evans advised parents to 'take responsibility' and help to foster a passion for sport in the younger generation of females.
While supporting the Ribble Valley MP's sentiments, sports minister, Tracey Crouch, said you shouldn't 'dictate' what a parent buys their child for Christmas, but agrees that parents should be as 'supportive as possible' should their daughters show an interest in sport.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr. Evans addressed Ms. Crouch on the issue, saying: "It may be that [it] won't make the parents the most popular people in the household on Christmas morning, but that they could perhaps consider buying their daughters gym membership and a pair of trainers for Christmas."
Ms. Crouch who is pregnant, responded to the suggestion by firstly saying: "Well, as somebody who is hopefully producing a future sports star herself, I don't think it's really for me to dictate to parents what it is that they buy their children for Christmas."
The minister did, however, acknowledge the importance of sport in an individual's life, saying: "I do think that it is important that parents understand their girls may want to get involved in sport, perhaps not traditional girls' sport, and that they should be as supportive as possible when they do so."
In the last ten years, the number of women participating in sport has increased by more than half a million, but, according to Ms. Crouch, recent figures indicate 'the beginning of a decline' since a high point three years ago.
