The Decider
The neighbor's boy--son of former Superbowl player--is chunky. I'm aware of his chunkiness because a) he tells me his mother says he's fat, which ticks me off; and b) when I took care of him for a week I saw the volume of processed food and sweets his mother packs into him. Which--c)--means the problem, while his to bear, is hers.
To overcome his weight issue, his mother has him in non-stop physical activities. Tennis, football, baseball, karate. It's hard to know whether or not he enjoys the sports; he doesn't really express preference for anything, ever (unless he's playing Playstation with Liam, in which case he has definite opinions.)
Today I got a call from a long-ago friend--one I've missed. She told me about her daughter, who'd explained at age 4 why she didn't want to take ballet lessons: "I'm a little kid and it's just too much. Too much."
"She might be 36 inches tall, but it's still her life," this friend chuckled.
And that, it seems to me, is the crux of it all.
posted by I n g e r @ Friday, September 01, 2006
4 Comments:
I think some times parent try to live their lives through there children also. It is important to have them in activities, especially in the middle school years, but to much is to much.
Kiran loves her dance but when she tells me she isn't having fun anymore that will be the last year.
Mary
I always wanted to grow up fast.
My kids figured out that being a child has many advantages. My youngest's attitude to war news was, "I'm a kid. I don't want to know abou this."
Now of course, the older girl is 15, so I'm not quite so smart as I used to be.
Intellectual things I always encouraged, physical ones I feared as I had seen so many hurt through the years. When both boys decided to wrestle, I didn't discourage them but lived in fear everytime they had a match. (My brother-in-law was a State champion in the late 70's; his last meet of his senior year he was in a match and his father the MD was in the back of the bleachers and heard a sickening crunch, knowing that it was a knee being shredded. 3 different surgeries later, and on a bad day he still has trouble getting around on it...)
I'm with your friend!
alan
the trials and tribulations of parenting.
i have learned to listen, when my kids try and tell me what they need. truth is,they really do know, mostly. they're the wise ones.
i will miss your words, inger.
they make my day so much more intriguing/interesting. "see you" in about 12 days.
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