Kid Fitness: The Burden of Being a Teenager

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

05 Jan 2007 07:15 PM

Being overweight can be hard on anyone, but it's particularly hard on a teenager. Remember, teenagers are already under assault from a flood of hormones and social pressures. Too often, when you are different or less than pleasing as a teenager - other teenagers are far from kind about it. I remember once reading an article that detailed high school was a microcosm for the real world with every positive and negative experience heightened exponentially.

I Was a Big Teenager

I was not a petite teenager. I hit puberty before most of the others. I developed breasts and more. I was also more athletically built than the others and I was not slender or lean. I remember being teased relentlessly about being overweight - being called fatso and more. How you look and how others treat you when you are in high school or as a teenager can have a profoundly disturbing effect on a person's self-image and self-esteem.

When we are younger, these blows can cause us to retreat from interacting with others and to feel like they can never be more than what they are. They can never lose weight. They can never be more positive. That they are overweight is what defines them and nothing more. Our society is not kind to those who are overweight and who are different - our teenagers take that to heart and they are less than not kind - they are cruel.

Skinny Makes Life Better

Too often teenagers associate being skinny with being better. Too often they associate weight loss with success. Too often they tie up who they are with what they are and how they look. Yes, obesity is a problem and it's health ramifications have been well explored. But when your teenager is overweight, it's their mental and emotional health that is battered and where the wounds that are inflicted can continue to affect them long after the weight is gone.

So, consider your words and your actions carefully when your teenager is overweight. You need to show them concern and affection and respect. It's a very difficult grouping of emotions, but you cannot always prevent your child from becoming overweight. You can only help them to shape more positive choices and to demonstrate for them healthy choices of their own.

Lead by example and support them, but don't bully them or browbeat them and don't make them feel worse than they already do - because trust me, the other teenagers in their lives are more than capable of doing that for you.

Related Articles:

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Kid Fitness: Three in Ten Children Are Obese

Fit Family - Miami Moms Take Action

Kid Fitness - Beware the Backlash

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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