Growth spurt making DS so clumsy

[Mumwhensdinnerready]

My 13 year old DS1 is wrecking the house.I thought he grew fast last year but he's now 5'11" and all arms and legs and so un -coordinated.
A fortnight ago he was carrying 2 plates of spag bol into the dining room when it slid off the plate on to the nearly new cream carpet. I had to get the carpet cleaned but it came up ok. Then he pulled the shower rail off the wall as he drew the curtain. I had to buy a new rail and pay a handyman to put it up.
Yesterday he banged the car door against the wall as he got out. Then last night he was clearing the table and dropped a bowl of barbeque sauce on the floor. Same carpet but even worse mess.
I'll have to have it cleaned again.

This reminded me of my 13 Ds. I call him a disaster on two legs at the moment.He broke our kitchen tap 3 hours after it had been mended. While he was apologising he dropped something! He trips over his feet and usually spills his tea down his shirt. Even if you warn him not to spill his drink in the car ten seconds later he will. He is so clumsy!!

It's not their fault. The problem is that their bodies have grown/are growing so fast that their brains can't keep up, and they quite literally don't "know" where they end and the rest of the world begins. They'll soon catch on to themselves.

Think of them as overgrown toddlers. You wouldn't tell your 3yo he's a disaster on two legs, would you?

My DS1 (14) is like this. He's always been a little uncordinated right from an early age, but just lately he seems to be totally out of control of his faculties!

He is tall and skinny (probably about 5 ft 10", taller than his dad!), and I liken him to a spider - all arms and legs and not much else.

When he sits down he fills a room! And clumsy - well, put it this way - if he was sitting on the floor he'd fall off it!

I'm sure it's something that will pass once he stops growing - fingers crossed. I don't get on at him about it, just the odd jokey comment that he laughs at with me. At least he sees the funny side of it all!

Oh God, I remember being like this (a LONG time ago now!)
I was always tall but remember at one stage just never knowing what my arms/legs were doing - it felt like I spent every waking moment walking into door frames and flinging out limbs that then made contact with walls/furniture/people/etc.

I think I settled into my new size eventually but its still quite clear 30+ years later

Doing sports can help teens who have grown very fast to gain coordination of their newly-enlarged bodies.

Good point Anna, but try and get my DS1 interested in sports - not an easy task, when the laptop seems far more appealing at the moment!

He does do badminton once a week though, so I suppose I ought to be grateful for small mercies.

is it just boys? not noticed any of this so far with dd's......but ds1 is coming up to 11 now,so not be long.

My kids swim competitively and you could always tell when a teen hits a growth spurt as their butterfly goes completely to pot. I think it's because the limbs grow out of proportion to the body so they have to re-learn where their extemities are.

It tends to be more noticeable in boys I think, probably because they have more extreme growth spurts than girls. Else the girls are just better at hiding it.