One of the things I’ve learned is that it isn’t enough to “tell” your teen to be active since we know teens aren’t known for being overly receptive to parental advice.   As a parent you have to be pretty creative as well.  It will take the both of you to make this happen.

A couple of years ago my 14 year old teen son was getting down in the dumps about his weight.  He had been a healthy light weight child growing up but when he got to grade 8 his intake of food far exceeded his expenditure of energy!

He’d argue with us about staying in swimming, so we allowed him to take a “break” once he passed his first senior level. He tried out for every team at school but  barely made the basketball team. The bench saw him more than the court and his weight was to blame.

We signed him up for little league football and again he saw more of the sideline and the watercooler than any action on the field. If you’re wondering about soccer, he hated that every year he was in it from age 7 to 13 and it too showed on the field.

We could have coddled him and told him that there were other things to do than sports, as he settled into playing with his xbox, but I couldn’t let that happen.  I knew all too well that kids who were involved in other activities excelled socially and academically, so we moved him to a school with an aggressive extra curricular program.

That was the best move we could have made.  Feeling a little less burdened with his less than stellar athletic record, my son tried out for the Rugby team at this new school and made the team!  He also signed up for the newspaper, the Save Darfur Club, and the United Nations Club. One other thing he did was to try out for the school play for that year  - Our Town.

This proud Mama is happy to say he made the school play (he played the role of Doc Gibbs) and he did really well at Rugby.  One of the best outcomes of this added activity was his weight improved. By the end of the school year he lost 20 pounds and improved his cardiovascular system significantly.

Here’s video clip from his performance in Our Town (he won’t be pleased I’m showing this - he’s the “young man” dancing with the “young lady” in a chocolate brown skirt).

Today my 15 year old is all muscle, back in swimming and the biggest irritant in my life about recycling.  I’m an advocate for green living, but my son is a fanatic about eating organic, cutting down our car emissions, and reusing just about everything under the sun.

My point here is keep your kids active, and don’t give up on finding a program that addresses their particular needs and talents - it really can have a tremendous impact on their health, academic performance, and self-confidence.