She is hunkered down on my bed, rifling through her backpack making sure she has everything she needs for school that day. My child, my pre-teen angel. Her long wavy hair hangs in a perfect thick brown shield hiding her pained expression. Her things now in perfect order, she slowly looks in my direction, tears brimming on her lashes.
“Mommy, I can’t do it.” We’re talking about P.E., of course. The quintessential nightmare of pre-teen girls everywhere. “We have to run the whole time and I can’t even breathe!” The discussion quickly turns into a detailed description involving dramatically dropping dead from oxygen deprivation. Sweat droplets are actually acid and will burn right through her skin and eat her flesh until it reaches her bones.
I feel her angst. I remember being 12 and feeling self-conscious and uncertain. The inclination that everyone, everywhere is watching your every move and taking notes. We had to practice changing clothes for P.E. so that there was no exposed skin showing upon the removal of shirt and pants. We had many discussions about the other girls feeling exposed and they would not be looking at HER changing, they are worried about her looking at THEM changing.
We talked about it so much that we were able to finally joke around. Picking her up from school in the afternoons, “Did you get naked in gym today?” “Not today,” was her pat answer. Until about three weeks into school a triumphant Abby says to me, “We got naked in gym today!” Success! No more tears, fears and worries about changing in the locker room.
What do I do about this new problem? The truth is, not much. Abby is a shy, sensitive child. If a teacher even speaks her name or a friend says “hello” in the grocery store, her face turns pink. Here we are faced with the reality of running around a racetrack, in front of a group of her peers, huffing, puffing, sweating… She doesn’t want to race or compete; she wants to live through what she sees as her public humiliation. What’s a mom to do? Write her a note of course….
ADailyDrama 
There are simply no words to describe how horrific I found the whole PE experience. I only hope that I can be as wise ushering my daughter through it, as you have been with yours!
I know what you mean. PE was the bane of my existence. My other daughter is really easy, She loves PE, so you never know! Thanks for reading my blog. 🙂