Two interesting factors at play:
1. The kids often don’t like when I work out because they would prefer I stay home and play with them. Natalie asks why I need to exercise and I’ve said, it keeps me healthy and it makes me feel good. One of Natalie’s friend’s mom had a similar situation and she said she responds with, “So I can stay alive a really long time.” I tried answering with that, and Natalie got concerned.
2. And then, we watched Cinderella, where both of her parents die. So, Natalie has been increasingly concerned about death. A few nights ago, she was crying, she was so worried about it. I tried to explain it on a continuum, where my arms were stretched out. And showed her that she is just starting, I’m a little older, Grandma/Nana are older than that and Mammaw/Pappaw/Grandma Jean or even older than that. (But that’s okay because they’ve had a chance to live all those years.) She is continuing to grapple with it -two nights ago, and then today during church, she asked one of us how long we were going to live and stretched out her arms.
That brings me to yesterday. When I explained I was going to exercise during Elliott’s nap, Natalie said “I don’t want you to work out – I want you to be here with me.” When I reminded her that it keeps me healthy so I can live a long time, she responded to her Dad then, with a very worried look on her face…. “Dad, you don’t really work out as much as Mom does.” And Jordan agreed that he could exercise more.
Now, today, I left to go on a run (at a new elevated running path – www.the606.org – 2 miles south of here). Jordan told me that while I was gone, she asked, “Dad will you be sure to exercise today?”
I’m happy to report that this afternoon, Jordan went to the roof deck for some high intensity interval training. Talk about effective motivation. Maybe she has a future in personal training or motivational speaking…
Now, lunge to the left…