I hope my babysitter doesn't read this...

[elfs]

omahas and I are cultivating teenagers who can watch over Kouryou-chan (and Yamaarashi-chan when she's here). We've found three so far, and like all teenagers they need money and, y'know, Omaha and I pay pretty well, at least minimum wage, which is better than most people according to the teens we've asked. Friday night, we asked Lily to come over and try it out.

She's a neat kid. Brought a stack of books to read for when Kouryou-chan went to sleep, as we expected to be out until after midnight. Omaha and I went out and had a good Valentine's day party, and when we came home we found Kouryou-chan safely in bed and Lily asleep on the couch, her book on the the floor next to her, curled up on a Tazmanian Devil pillow and under my favorite Sad Girl In Snow blanket. We woke her long enough to ask if she wanted to go home or crash for the night-- offering to feed her if she stayed, a bribe as I was tired enough I didn't want to drive anywhere.

She's pretty, too, but... While she walked about in a t-shirt and jeans I noticed that her triceps just sorta hung there. She has absolutely no muscle tone at all in her arms. It was a moment when I realized that she was falling into that category of teenager who spends too much of her time not doing anything at all physical. Smart as she is, it was sad to realize that physically she's probably already caught in that downward spiral that has made America the most obese nation on Earth.

Comments

[elfs.livejournal.com]

The "friends" list as a restrictive mechanism is a convention, not a reality. If Lily or her mother want to read this, no matter what I did, they would. It's that simple. There are people in my friends list who would forward every comment I made "in private" to her, and, y'know, I'm okay with that. I long ago accepted that anything I posted anywhere on the Internet could show up on the cover of the New York Times, and I write with that kind of fearlessness.

Riverheart mentioned that her body has a set-point. Most bodies do. And the set-point gets "set" during puberty. That is the time when your body's hormonal balance reaches equilbrium, and it is during this period that your initial fat cell ratio is set as well. Fat cells hold only so much, and then they divide-- and puberty is when the initial surge of your life-long bodyfat cell count is established. Once they're there, the only way to be rid of them is liposuction.

Lily's problem isn't fat, though. She's not. It's simpler than that: she has no habit of physical activities. She doesn't live in an environment that affords many (namely, the suburbs), and she doesn't, as far as I know, own a bicycle. I hope she recognizes this as a problem and does something about it. She is well past the age where her parents can have any influence in the matter without her consent.

I find it curious that expressing concern over someone's well-being, even if obliquely, is somehow "hurtful."

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

I long ago accepted that anything I posted anywhere on the Internet could show up on the cover of the New York Times, and I write with that kind of fearlessness.

Kids today, think they invented sex the internet.

[(Anonymous)]

It is if you do it in a profoundly patronizing and high-handed manner. Would you like me clucking over in my journal about poor Elf and how it's a pity that he hasn't developed a better sense of tact, since it'll serve him poorly in the long run? That, too, could be waved away as legitimate concern for your well-being -- but it also reeks of the rude habit of presuming to know others' circumstances and what's best for them, a peculiar habit for a libertarian.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I already know I have a poor talent with tact, so stating the obvious isn't going to offend me.

Besides, a peculiar habit for a libertarian would be trying to use the force of law to impose what he believes is best for others. I didn't do any such thing.