Believe it or not, there is a contingent of well-meaning parents (particularly athletic ones) who are encouraging their kids to participate in marathons. As a pediatrician, I must say, this makes me gasp. A 10-year-old training for long distance running? A 12-year-old participating in a triathlon? Yikes, what have we come to?
Believe it or not, there is a contingent of well-meaning parents (particularly athletic ones) who are encouraging their kids to participate in marathons. As a pediatrician, I must say, this makes me gasp. A 10-year-old training for long distance running? A 12-year-old participating in a triathlon? Yikes, what have we come to?
Now, I’m from a crazily-fanatic family of exercisers. My husband runs ultra-marathons and my own daughters run regular marathons. So, I know firsthand the intensity involved in the mindset of those who do these things. As for me, well, I like exercise as much as the next mom, and I consider myself a fairly disciplined person, but marathons and kids should never be in the same sentence. Here’s why I say that.
First, encouraging kids to recruit the necessary self discipline to participate in long distance sports sets kids up to burn out at a very early age.
If you’ve never seen a young teen burnout on sports, let me tell you it’s not a pretty sight. They become bitter, turn against anyone who encouraged them to keep competing, and can even suffer depression. Burnout occurs primarily on a psychological level, but their young bodies can collapse under the strain as well.
Second, kids are not physiologically ready for even considering long distance sports until they are over 16 years old.
Their bones aren’t ready, their muscles aren’t ready, and neither are their joints. Teenage athletes who participate in well-established sports like hockey, football, soccer, and dance (to name a few) suffer many joint-related injuries that they can be tough to treat. Many of these injuries can have lifelong effects. For instance, we are discovering the long term sequelae (abnormal conditions) from serious head injuries sustained in hockey and football during the teen years. Young bodies that take a beating don’t bounce back as well as one might think.