Teens Are Not Getting Enough Exercise

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

Hello again ye nurturers of the young,

A father this week blew my mind with his very simple parenting philosophy: "I refuse to act like there's a scarcity of resources," he said, "while I live in a land of abundance." So many of our parenting anxieties are unnecessary FOOKMO: Fear of Our Kids Missing Out. "Our kids don't have a pool!" "She didn't make the soccer team!" "He's not going to be in the class with the best teacher." Sometimes children can make this fear worse, because of their insistence that they HAVE to have a particular toy/pair of sneakers/flavor of lip salve. And the pressure really ramps up around gift-giving season to make sure our children don't feel deprived. But remember, you're the grown-up, the one with perspective. Take the long view. Here's what your children need: interest and support, plus, you know the basics. And probably some lip salve at this time of year. But don't get the cherry flavor; it's nasty. Interested in hearing any other great parenting insights you heard this week! I'm at Belinda.Luscombe@time.com or @luscombeland on twitter.

P.S. If you like this newsletter, please pass it on to a friend. And if you got it from a friend, sign up here for email delivery each Friday. You know, more or less.

roundup

What does infertility feel like from a father's point of view ? "[When] my wife and I walked through the door of that fertility clinic, we might as well have been moving to a new country, one where we ended up living for almost four years. It was a country with its own language, its own calendar, its own leadership, its own climate (well, emotional climate) and its own sense of time," writes novelist Michael Frank. "I wasn't prepared for the agony of living through these cycles of treatment, where waiting is consistently broken down to slow, painful, fractal-like interludes of sub-waiting. It's not just your body you hand over to complete strangers but your mind too." Read more, worth it. TIME

"It's not helpful to children to be despairing when so much more still needs to be done. Despair is a paralyzing emotion." You know, just an interview by working mom Angelina Jolie about children and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. (Fun Fact: that convention is still not ratified by the U.S.) TIME

The way kids are learning about Thanksgiving is changing. Does this mean turkey hands are a thing of the past? Here's a deep dive into how Thanksgiving came to be taught the way it is, and how that may not be the way it's taught in the future. TIME

The first global country-by-country report on teenagers' physical activity suggests that the vast majority of the world's teens aren't getting enough exercise. The study looked at 1.6 million adolescents aged 11 to 17 years from 146 countries in 2001 and then again in 2016. Overall, 81% of the adolescents did not meet the WHO recommendations of one hour of moderate to vigorous activity a day in 2016. That's 81% folks. Eighty-one. More than eight out of ten. Here's what's going on. TIME

It's gift giving time. Who knows what the kids want these days? Well , actually the TIME for Kids team has a pretty good idea. They kind of specialize in kids. Get your list sorted, or at least find some of what the young folks call inspo, with the TFK gift guide for 2019. Time for Kids. Also, don't forget that you and your loved ones can still cast a vote for the 2019 TIME for Kids Person of the Year until December 5.

The holidays often means siblings get to spend a little more time together. And winter holidays can sometimes mean that time is spent in close quarters. So it seems the perfect time to resurface this long, nourishing and frankly charming essay about how to help siblings get along, by my colleague Jeff Kluger, author of a book on siblings. TIME

PFFT: Parenting from Famous Types

Jennifer Garner, actor and parent of three, after she came to her son's birthday in a costume

"Well, guess what. It turns out 7 is the age my kid stops thinking it's cool when I dress up for the party. #youngestchild #firsteyeroll🙄."

To Unsubscribe
You have received this e-mail because you are subscribed to this newsletter from TIME.com. Unsubscribe here.

Update Email
Click here to update your email address.

Privacy Policy
Please read our Privacy Policy, or copy and paste this link into your browser: https://time.com/privacy

TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

For Further Communication
Please contact parents@time.com
TIME USA, LLC
225 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10128

Connect with TIME