$125 value in 11 year old dollars?

Cool, and also to see you here.

ehBeth, with respect, hardly any kids in america and maybe even canada work and run around as much as Mo does.

The family doc may not know that about sports. Some sports foster certain muscles.

How about a Mom and Mo vs Dad and Mo contest?

You could pick two elderly neighbor houses to do yard work in. Of course, you'd get permission ahead of time and tell the owners what this is all about. Mo would need to work with Mom on one yard and with Dad on the other yard within a specific time limit. Maybe with mom on one yard the first weekend and with dad on the other yard the second weekend. Mom and dad can choose to participate in the physical work with Mo or just be there to coach and support with any needed advice, heavy lifting, tools and cold drinks.

The chores could include pulling weeds, mowing and edge trimming lawns, cultivating soil in flower beds, sweeping walkways and porches, etc.

Maybe both houses have a $20 budget (provided by each parent) for bedding plants. Take Mo to the nursery and let Mo select the plants for each house as long as he stays within the $20 limit. Also let him decide how to lay them out in the bed (after some coaching from mom/dad on what the plant needs) and then let him plant them.

Maybe have a small neighborhood pot luck barbecue and enlist the neighbors to vote on which house wins the "Mo and Boomer Family Beautifies the Neighborhood" contest with the prize being a $125 certificate that you print from your computer and a group photo with the elderly home owner, Mo and either Mom or Dad (depending on which yard won) in front of the award winning house.

Set up some points of failure such as not finishing a project that he starts, not finishing everything by the weekend deadline, whining about the hard work, etc.

Benefits:

1. Mo gets the physical exercise from working at both houses and gets the participation from both parents too.

2. Mo gets to help out a couple of neighbors and it is a win/win thing for him since he will be working at both houses. To win, he'll have to be willing and receptive to the coaching from mom/dad.

3. Mo gets to learn about plants and their needs, and gets to display some creativity and learn design skills when he plants them.

4. It involves the neighborhood and gives Mo some brownie points with the neighbors. Also keeps the winning decision out of mom and dad's hands so it won't backfire on you.

5. Mo gets to puff up his chest with pride every time he goes by the neighbor's houses to see the plants he planted.

I don't really consider it gambling, Linkat. "I'll bet you can't blahblahblah" happens all the time around here and none of us gamble.

We do talk about health and fitness a lot. He knows when he's making bad food choices. He's just hungry all the time. He'll eat a whole melon and still be hungry.

I think a lot of this is puberty. I notice a lot of his friends getting chunkier.

I get exactly what you're saying, soz. Mo is unconcerned about it and I'm quite concerned about it. Dealing with it while avoiding the body issues is really, really hard. It sounds like you handled it really well.

I really like those ideas, johnboy! Learning something new.... I'm going to think on that because I think I could make that work. Thank you.

I would prefer he be lean and fit, ehBeth. No doubt about it. He goes out, then up, then out, then up, and knowing how active he is I've never really been concerned. This time he's gone a bit more out than usual. I don't know if it was because of the broken foot, or puberty, or exactly what. I just know that I don't want it to spiral out of control.

He is a big kid and has always been bulky. It runs in his genetic family to be bulky. He is aware of food choices, always has been. He doesn't even get that many choices since I cook every night and we sit down to eat together.

He'll know that we're following weight but we'll all be following our weight so it won't be just him. I'm thinking that I'll set it at a certain percentage of body weight.

You're right, osso. Not many kids can keep up with Mo. Today he got out of bed and went to golf camp for three hours, since there wasn't baseball practice he had some friends over and they played basketball and rode scooters then we all went swimming for two hours. Then he rode his bike to their house for a cookout and they're all going to the schoolyard to play basketball some more then he'll ride his bike home, take a shower, chill for a bit and go to bed.

Tomorrow we'll do it all again. And then we have a weekend baseball tournament where he'll play three games each day.

He play basketball, football and baseball on teams and for fun, he bikes, hikes, swims, boxes, golfs and scooters for fun.

Just this second I got off the phone with his friend's dad to arrange for a kayak, swim, jet ski excursion for tomorrow.

I honestly don't know how I could work an hour of exercise into his day.

That's a beautiful idea, Butrflynet, but unfortunately our neighborhood is sick with professionally landscaped yards that are manicured every Thursday by a team of professional gardeners. The two that aren't are in houses owned by people whose level of proficiency exceeds the professionals.

Then there is my yard -- the one all the kids play on. He will go out and start shooting baskets and there will be 10 kids there in just a few minutes. He is well known and well loved by everyone around here but they probably would never trust him with their yards!

Anyway.... I floated the idea of a wager past him tonight and he took hold and shook it around trying to come up with ways to make it interesting (he's VERY competitive).

"I'll have to wash your car 10 times" (They frown on that here, too many chemicals end up in the waterways.)

"I'll keep my room clean AND do all the dishes" (He has to do that anyway.)

"I'll..... I'll..... I'll..... oh I have to leave or I'll be late.... I'll think about it..... See ya!"

A consideration is that sometimes athletes are hurt and then they face layers of trouble. Why do I bring this up - just that understanding food can be a good idea, but I'm almost positive young athletes have no idea about the role of food.

How about taking him to a pick-it-yourself farm or orchard and have a family contest to see who can fill up their bushel basket first with quality pickings. You'd end up with three containers of the item(s).

On the way home you can talk about how hard people work to grow and harvest food crops. You could have a family brainstorm and make a list of all the types of food the items you picked can be found and why some are more nutritious than others.

When you get home, have him help you prep the items for the freezer while you talk about how he might like to have some of the items cooked for dinner that night.

What do you think (boomer) of giving this some more time before starting the wager?

It does seem like he's naturally super-active, and the broken foot had to have put a dent in that. So maybe wait another, I dunno, month or so and see where things are then?*

The other thing that occurs to me is that E.G. has a stupendously large appetite (really, by the way he eats you'd swear he'd have to be about 300 pounds, but he has no body fat to speak of) and different foods make a big difference for him in terms of satiety. He needs complex carbohydrates -- beans, that sort of thing -- or he's just hungry again in 10 minutes. I wonder if that could apply to Mo at all?

*edit: Although it occurs to me that he could probably lose weight faster starting right now if his activity level is now higher than it had been, giving him a better chance of winning the wager. (Which I gather is a goal, I agree if so.)

Thinking, pasta e fagioli - well I would. It's a bean soup with pasta in it, and I throw in some sausage.

I don't know, Mo might have some food allergies that trigger the extra pounds. Before I do any bets or even more exercise, I'll check with a nutritionist. He could be allergic to gluten, or any other grain etc. etc.

Bletch!!!! Sorry, Cjane, I usually agree with you. Not this time.

Ask him if he wants to bet and if so what.

Ask yourself why you would encourage gambling.

Give him the means to win any bet through his application.

Why not just say if you achieve XYZ then you can have ABC?

Nah - I kinda meant it as a joke - hard to get across without seeing my face.

I don't think that losing a bet has to have the connotation of a punishment, though.

It's more along the lines of a promise that has to be kept if certain conditions are met.

Kind of an if...then statement.

Has Mo hit his growth spurt, yet?

I remember being short and pudgy at the end of my freshman year of high school. That summer, my growth spurt hit, and I was much taller and leaner by the time school started.

Mo has two good friends with EG's metabolism. They are rail thin and eat and eat and eat and eat. One of them went swimming with us yesterday and he brought money for the vending machine. I bought (and consumed) two candy bars and a soda and was digging though our swim bag for snacks. This kid is 13, nearly 6 feet tall, and probably weighs only 100 pounds.

It drives Mo crazy not to be able to eat like that. (I don't ever take money to the pool so that we can avoid the vending machine argument.)

Maybe I should give it more time..... see if it corrects itself..... he's veering into what I consider an unhealthy weight though and I'd like to put the brakes on it before it gets any worse.

I don't think it's an allergy, CJane. He's never had a problem with any foods before.

I have asked him what he wants to bet but he's making it too easy for himself. It needs to be something big.




I set it up as a wager because I know him. I know the kind of things he responds too.

I don't really see how a bribe is better than a wager.

I don't measure him all that often and the day by day transition acclimatizes me to his growth so I don't really notice the change so much.

A few weeks ago we were measuring him against the marks we make on every birthday -- he's grown almost 3 inches since January. He was a bit pudgy on his birthday but slimmed down pretty quickly and now he's at a pudgy point again so I'm guessing we're due for some "up".

This time the pudgy has been worse than the previous times though.

Is there a certain growth spurt that I should be on the lookout for? Like a major one mixed in with all the minor ones?