My 10-year-old is overweight and pretty sedentary. Yesterday he came into my office and--totally out of character--announced that he was going for a walk. Surprised, I looked at the rainy, cold front yard, then looked back at him, and asked, Youre what? Going for a walk. Ill be back. He headed out the door. When he came back I couldnt help but ask what prompted it. I just wanted to. Several more probing questions finally got past his evasion. Apparently Benjamin had finished the book he was reading but, because his tablet is still (for reasons unknown) set up to share a library account with his brother, he was stuck because Jacob had checked out too many books so the account was maxed. As an alternative Ben went to the school library to get a book. He navigated to an author he knew and saw an unfamiliar title, so he grabbed it. After checking it out and getting home, Ben realized it was a different author who shared the same last name. Totally a mistake. The book is called Losing It, and is about a young boy whose mother dies, and then his father--who has diabetes--has a heart attack (or something). The boy is scared into evaluating his own health and decides to lose weight. So THATS why Ben is suddenly talking walks. FWIW, he skipped his after school snack today (Ill be eating a lot at the party tonight) and went out for another voluntary walk. The power of books. Its funny, though, that 10 years of his mother giving him the same daily advice had zero impact, but a book checked out by mistake totally persuaded him. Maybe Wendy should write teen fiction.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 22:04:45 +0000
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