Kavya: “Do you want to go for a run with me, mommy?”
I said yes, of course. When did we turn into a family that runs together? There is no precedent for this in my own childhood.
For context, Kavi is decidedly not sporty — she is generally the slowest kid in her class and also the clumsiest. She has spent many an hour curled up on the couch. But Kavi wanted to do soccer this spring, so we signed her up, to find that she is, unsurprisingly, the slowest and the one who gets tired first. She got pretty teary at her last game because she was feeling sick from trying to run and felt like her teammates were mad at her for not running more.
So we had a talk about how you can actually build speed and endurance and aerobic capacity by practicing, doing a little more each day, and about a week ago, Kavi put on her headphones and her sneakers and went for a run around the block. A few days later, she did it again. Yesterday, Kavya did it twice! With no prompting! It was after that that she asked me if I’d like to run with her next time.
Now, I’m guessing Kavi’s ‘run’ is closer to a jog + walk combo, but still. Feels like opening a new door in her life. 🙂