I Just Don't Get It

Last week 1st quarter report cards were sent home. Now, Vicki is a good student; a little chatty, but good. She gets A's and B's, and is actually disappointed when she gets a C. I always tell her that I want her to try her best, and if she does that, I'm happy. So, attached to her report card is something called "The President's Challenge Physical Fitness Program" results sheet. Let me back up a bit. We are not the most physically fit family in the world. But Vicki and I walk, and now jog 3 times a week, we try to eat healthy, etc. She's a little chubby, but my sisters and I went through that stage at her age, too. So this results sheet, for a 'Challenge' that I have NEVER heard of, shows her birth date, height, weight, etc. Then it has all these ratings for things like Curl-ups, V-Sit Reach (whatever the hell that is), One-Mile Run, etc. She did ok, except for the running part. We are not runners. We can barely jog. The only runner in the family is Eric...he was a track star in high school, but he has the body of a runner, too. So, the bottom part of the 'results' sheet has comments in the following categories: Agility, Endurance, Upper Body Strength. It suggests that she should do the following:

• Sit-ups or stomach crunches 10 minutes/day, 5 days/week
• tennis, handball or basketball 3 times/week
• jogging 20 minutes/day, 3 days/week
• push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, or working with dumbbells 4 times/week

Now, even though I think that list is a little excessive for a 9-yr-old, I told her that we'll start working out a little more together. Let me remind you, she wants to do this...I am not forcing this on her.

Fast forward to yesterday at Vicki's school. D and I went to the Turkey Run at Vicki's request. It's where the kids run a mile and compete for prizes. 1st place wins a turkey, 2nd place and 3rd place each win a pumpkin pie. The girls run first. While they are running, we notice the coach is a little chunky herself. D said, "Is that the coach?" We surmised that it was, indeed, the coach. D said, "Why is she fat?" No lie, here...she was big. And it wasn't muscle...it was fat. One of her thighs equals two of mine. And she was petite, too, so she REALLY didn't wear it well at all. So now I'm thinking about Vicki's 'results' sheet, and how she's supposed to be doing all of this working out to get in shape. The issue here is, if your coach is fat and telling you to work out more, doesn't that make her a hypocrit??

As the girls' race came to an end, we noticed that the coach was talking to the 2nd and 3rd place winners, away from everyone else. D said, "She's probably trying to get their pumpkin pies!"

BTW...Vicki did not come in last, either. She had 7 or 8 girls come in behind her. She's not an overachiever when it comes to physical fitness, but she's my kid and I love her.