11 year old granddaughters activity level

[Rosille]

Good morning everyone,
My only granddaughter is 11, she’s in Y7 and a brilliant girl. Her mum passed away in 2019 so my son is raising her alone.
Grandaughter is a very bright, intelligent girl. She has always been a bit of a live wire and is very active, would rather be out on her bike than playing inside etc.
My son is a bit weak willed with her and If she asks to do something he almost always says yes but I’m now worried that her Schedule is too much on her young body.
For sports she loves tennis and athletics. She does both competitively and does well. Her dad decided this year to get a private tennis coach for her after they went to Wimbledon and she declared she wants to be a pro one day (I don’t think she is quite that good!). Athletics she enjoys but not as much. She also decided to join her school volleyball team.

Currently her schedule is
Monday - Tennis training before school
Tuesday - Cross Country training
Wednesday - Tennis before school and volleyball afterschool
Thursday - Indoor Athletics training
Friday - Tennis before school
Saturday - Either a tennis comp or athletics comp
Sunday - Tennis training for 3 hours

My issue is my granddaughter is very skinny, she is a good eater but she spends so much time active that I worry she is doing too much. She’s very competitive so won’t stop and my son hates to say no to her.

AIBU to think this is way too much physical activity? Something needs to give right?

How long are each of those training sessions? I'm assuming the before school ones can't be that long!

It sounds fine to me tbh

Doesn’t count that much to me. Most public school children would be doing much the same.

Sounds fine to me if she’s enjoying it. And doing some different things means she can easily switch to something else if she’s had enough of tennis

Before school are about an hour (6.30-7.30), the school is next door to the tennis centre so she gets showered then walks to school for 8am where she’s allowed to sit in the library and do homework until class starts.
Athletics are both 1.5 hours.
Tennis on the weekend is 3 hours.
Volleyball is an hour.

Many 11 year olds are skinny. If she’s a good eater she will definitely be eating the calories she is using.

I think if she’s doing these activities through her own choice that’s great. Too many children (including mine!) don’t want to do any physical activity at all.

Plus, anyone who wants to compete at a serious level has to put the hours in.

Most children do much LESS physical activity than they should

This is good for her

Good for her! I wish I'd done sport at her age.

A third of 11 year olds in the UK are overweight so she may actually be a healty weight as well

I had a schedule like that at her age. I was fine.

She's fit and healthy, there is no concern for that level of activity. Be glad it's not swimming - seriously swimmers do hours before school.

Maybe it's not a bad thing to keep herself occupied after losing her Mum.
We can only begin to imagine the effect this has had on her. 🙁

If she's enjoying it and is well and happy within herself then I think that sounds great.

As she gets a bit older, she may need to cut back a bit in order to get her schoolwork done, but she's not at that age yet and that can be very individual (some need more time than others for schoolwork, some need more downtime than others etc).

Your son and granddaughter have obviously been through a horrendous time. It sounds like they're doing great.

Make sure you offer her other options when she is in your care.
Through out the year offer some baking, listening to music, painting, craft, sewing, knitting, reading and take her to a performance and to the zoo.
Take her bird watching and walking and snoozing on the beach.

She seems to know what she likes doing and she eats very well.
Be alert to either of those two things changing.

At that age I’d just support her to ensure she understands nutrition and fueling for sports performance. You’d struggle to make a tween /teen do that level of sport if they didn’t have the love and drive to do it. I have two teen DDs and one does a lot of sport, competes nationally but it’s all driven by her she still keeps up with her A levels it’s her world. As long as the pressure isn’t coming from dad I’d say support and guide whilst she’s happy whilst keeping options open. A lot can change in the teen years my DDs has seen her peers just stop exercising completely, get into partying drink & drugs, so everyone is different and needs different things in their life.

So many young people are overweight, suffering from anxiety and spending too much time on screens.She sounds like she is driven, energetic, healthy and sporty.

Looks very much like my schedule at her age!

Please don't call her skinny.

If she is managing ok then I wouldn’t worry. Its far better she’s engaged with physical activity rather than sitting around playing on a phone etc. I personally wouldn’t be wanting to do all that running around

Daily physical activity is necessary for children. It has huge mental and physical benefits. I don’t think it’s something to worry about.

Competitive sport can put a lot of pressure on chidren but exercise itself is not harmful. As long as she’s eating enough to fuel her body, sleeps enough, and has time to relax and socialise as well, it’s fine.

Sounds similar to my teen's schedule (she also plays tennis and does showjumping competitively and also plays netball for the school).

Monday: after school tennis for 3 hours;
Tuesday: horse riding for about 1 hour;
Wednesday: after school tennis for 2 hours and horse riding for about 1 hour;
Thursday: she plays netball for the school so either 1 hour after school training or a match, then 1 hour horse riding;
Friday: 1 hour tennis and 1 hour horse riding after school;
Saturday: 2 hours horse riding (2 different horses);
Sunday: horse competitions.

Really full on 😬 but she's doing well and sport is good for body and soul.

Thought you were going to be posting about a couch potato when I read the title. I know you mean kindly, but for a sporty child that itinerary is absolutely normal and fine. Sports will be great for her mental and physical health and she wouldn't do it if she didn't love it.

I have 2 sporty DC, they each have 4 weekday training activities and events/matches both weekend days. Also both skinny but good eaters, perfectly healthy. Both friends with lots of similar sports mad kids who are the same.

There actually isn’t much running around involved for my son.
We live in a town, so he drops her at tennis in the morning (other days she just walks to school). She then takes herself from tennis to school and school to home. She walks to athletics herself too. Then on Sunday she takes herself to tennis.
The running around is just for the competitions. For Athletics it’s about 1 a month. Tennis maybe a little more.

It looks tons to me but I realise I'm a minority! My teens struggled with more than 2 activities a week but although very high flying academically they are ND so maybe it's that.

The ones that do lots tend to be swimmers or dancers but otherwise they didn't seem unusual.

Being out everyday would be exhausting for them and managing with school. But I can see maybe we're the outlier in mumsnet circles!

Our school isn't even homework intensive but to keep up with homework too they couldn't be out every night.

Gosh maybe we are more restricted than we thought in terms of stamina/functioning. They seemed fairly average amongst friends!

This is a brilliant, healthy schedule that will benefit her mental and physical health HUGELY.

You are 100 percent wrong to be worried

Your son is doing a fantastic job, be very proud

My only concern would be that she's doing significant physical activity 7 days a week. How often does get a rest day?