17.05.12

I don't usually feel sorry for my 15-year-old son. His life is pretty bearable. But last week, he started wrestling for his high school team. I'm not a big fan of contact sports and find wrestling brutal to watch. But the coach is a smart and sensible guy, and the kids on the team look out for each other in ways I haven't seen in football or hockey. Plus, team sports, and organized group activities in general, keep teenagers out of trouble. All those practices and games force them to be part of something larger than themselves and not so focused on updating their Facebook statuses.

Then my son came home and announced that he had to lose six pounds in a week to make weight. I tried to be supportive.

"You can do it," I said.

"This is serious, Mom," he said. "I don't think you know how to do this."

Oh, I knew how to do it. I hadn't been a teenage girl for nothing. I was the only girl in the family and my mother and grandmother paid a lot of attention to me. They had strict ideas on how girls should look and behave. No.1 was act ladylike. No. 2 was get good grades and be thin. Figuring out how to do all that without having a nervous breakdown wasn't always easy, but I tried. One summer in high school, I went to tennis camp with some skinny girls. One was famous for having appeared in a Burger King commercial. From these girls, I learned that lunch could consist of Tab, raw carrots and a couple tablespoons of peanut butter. They put vinegar and lemon juice on everything.

Source: Patch.com