Teenagers know best

When I remember the times when my kids were in their teens, I cannot believe that we managed to cross that period without major conflicts and hard feelings.

Thanks God, I think I was a good mother, and I believe that my biggest quality, which saved me from being hated by my own children was flexibility. My eldest daughter still asks me today how I managed to keep cool when she came home completely drunken for many months when she was 16, and why I never raised my voice when I saw her piercing her body in so many places, that my mind would have never imagined possible.

It is true I thought those were horrible habits, but I knew it was all about the rebellion of youth in front of the old and conservative stuff. I understood their need of doing things different. As a teenager, I was ahead of my times as well, I even ran away from home at 15, because I thought my parents were dictators and that they were seeing their children rather as slaves than friends or family.

I also knew that my daughter was very intelligent, and that she'd eventually give up those stupid habits, so I found the strength of suffering in silence and let her live her life the way she considered.

One thing I was deeply worried about was her obsession with weight loss, fitness, diets and similar stuff. She tended to believe all kind of strange weight loss myths and to pursue them to starvation.I can agree that there are many risks when being overweight, but still...

She always thought she was too fat to be attactive for the most wanted boys in the school, so she tried almost each and every diet that she heard about, from the grapefruit diet to Oshawa diet or even to the severe Atkins diet. The funny side of this habit was that it meant less cooking for me: at least during that cabbage soup diet, I remember her preparing the cabbage soup by herself, because she didn't trust me that I'd follow exactly the recipe. Besides, she was eating nothing else except that stuff for 7 days, and because of the yo-yo effect, she did that several times a year.

Luckily for me, before getting a nervous breakdown, as my daughter had the crazy idea that she wants to become an anorexic, I met a woman who changed our lives: she was in her 40s, but she was looking so good, so fit, and so elegant, that all men's eyes were attracted by her appearance everywhere she'd go. I could have bet she knew some good weight loss tips.

That woman was our neighbor at a point, and my daughter took her as a model, aiming to become such a presence herself. We became friends quite fast, and she told us her story: as a child, she was the ugly duckling, fat and sloppy, not taking care at all of the way she looked or she dressed. Her change was due to a very good nutritionist who advised her, coached her and gave her motivation to live a balanced life, which transformed her into the beautiful swan we had in front of our eyes.

That was enough for my daughter to strive to visit a nutritionist herself. She didn't need to ask me that more than once. I immediately booked her a consultation with a famous dietetitian, and I was very pleased to see that she liked him a lot and she followed his advice. The results appeared quickly: she started to look better, to get an elegant body line, to get a healthy body tonus, and most of all, she gave up alcohol for good.

I can understand, and I totally agree that we need to watch our children's weight, because if they eat unhealthy foods and become overweight bec ause of not getting too much outdoor exercise, it will be very painful to help them get rid of that fat and get fit again. However, it can be a real challenge to restrict a fat child from eating, when you have other children too, and you cannot leave them with an empty fridge only to prevent the fat one from over eating.

The best thing a parent can do is to seek for advice from specialists, as they have experience and they have encountered many situations like yours, so they might be able to come with good solutions and not the weight loss scams we can see all over the place..