It’s cold, it’s dark, the AQI is high at times, and there are no holidays or special events to look forward to in the next few weeks. It’s no wonder depression spikes in February. In fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, late January and early February see serious rises in something called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). It affects not only adults but kids and teens as well.

Some common symptoms to watch for in yourself and your kids include: lethargy or changes in sleeping patterns, a sudden disinterest in things you generally enjoy, irritability, inability to focus or concentrate, and changes in eating habits and patterns. Luckily, though, there are a few things you can do to hold the blues at bay while we wait for warmer weather and brighter days.

Get Outside: Part of the suspected reason for seasonal depression is the lack of Vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D helps the brain produce a cocktail of feel-good chemicals, like serotonin and dopamine, which regulate our emotions and energy. But the cold weather and bad AQI in Beijing keep us indoors. Just five minutes a day spent outside on your lunch break could see a huge improvement in your mood!

Get Moving: In the immortal words of Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods, “Exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy, happy people don’t shoot their husbands!” Shake up your workout routine and get your kids involved in physical activities. Try a silks class, or Krav Maga, or just bike to work or school. Harvard Medical School cited a study that shows mood-boosting effects from as little as 20 minutes of moderate exercise each day. A family walk could be all you need to see a dramatic change in happiness levels.

Get Creative: Art therapy has been shown to have a mood-boosting effect. Expats tend to be high achievers who deal with a lot of stress, and simply having an unstructured creative outlet like coloring, journaling, or dancing, where no one has any expectations of the work you produce, can be very freeing and great for your mental health. Especially for teens who are under immense pressure to constantly produce good grades, create innovative projects, and win competitions that will set them apart in the admissions process. Head to Taobao and get some modeling clay or coloring books and keep them on your desk or in your backpack for a five minute brain break once in a while.

Human Connection: Humans are physical beings who need touch and verbal affirmation. We all experienced the lack of that connection during lockdown, and now that socializing is possible again, we should make spending in-person time with people we love a priority. I know that sometimes all you want is Netflix and take-out, but if it’s been more than a week since you spent time with friends outside of work you need to reconnect for your mental health and theirs. This is especially important for teenagers. Social media is fine but developmentally they need social interaction at an even higher rate than adults do. Set up communal activities and encourage them to meet friends in person.

The good news? The days are getting longer and we are headed into warmer weather. Mild seasonal depression is normal and should subside on its own, but as always, if you think you or your child has a more prolonged or acute issue you should seek professional medical help. Take care of yourself, ask for help when you need it, and be ready to assist other Beijingers who might need an emotional boost to get through the next few weeks.

Images: Canva

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Improved nutrition means teenagers in China are taller than ever before, but they are also less physically fit than previous generations, a recent report has revealed.

The data come from a series of surveys carried out over thirty years by the Chinese government. Unlike in the west, concerns about adolescent fitness do not center on worries about video games or junk food. Instead, it’s time studying which is the major concern. “We care too much about developing children’s IQ, and too little about their motor skills, team spirit and resilience. These ‘invisible’ capabilities can only be obtained through outdoor activities,” according to Wang Zongping, a motor development specialist at Nanjing University of Science and Technology.

The report also blames Chinese parents’ unwillingness to see their children getting hurt, even in a minor way. As Professor Yiyuan Xu puts it in the book Parenting Across Cultures: Childrearing, Motherhood and Fatherhood in Non-western Cultures, “The implementation of the one-child policy appears to have given rise to the use of intrusive/ overprotective parenting in Chinese parents.” Most parents of more than one child will recognize that they are considerably more relaxed with second and further children, and the policy has denied that experience to many parents in China. As a result, sporting equipment was removed from many campuses during the 1990s following parental complaints. Besides equipment, there’s a lack of space in Beijing for children simply to run around and kick a ball.

Most international schools teach western curricula, which tend to put a greater emphasis on physical education; and those that don’t are also mindful of the importance of exercise. Matt Heyman, K-12 Athletics Coordinator at Daystar Academy, told us:

“One of the great things we do at Daystar is to make sure our students receive a well rounded education. Our elementary students have physical education 3 times a week for 45 minutes, recess for 45 minutes a day, and a performing arts class as well once a week. That is significantly more than most elementary schools that I have observed in the United States. Our Middle School students have a little less recess time and no performing arts, but have longer physical education classes every other day. Daystar is also looking to add an autonomous period into the middle school schedule so students have the freedom to chose a physical activity.”

There’s a phrase dating back to the Roman poet Juvenal which is still relevant to the present day: mens sana in corpore sano, “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. Research suggests a link between participation in sports and academic achievement; and also that a certain volume of homework has added value, beyond which it becomes counter-productive. For the sake of children’s test scores, as well as their general wellbeing, it’s important to keep a balance between study and energetic play.

Photo: projects-abroad.hk

Last week’s New York Times article (What Is It About 20-Somethings?, Aug 18, 2010) on the alleged phenomenon of young people in the US who are either unwilling or unable o cut the cord and assume full-blown adulthood (i.e. financial and domestic independence) has succeeded in ruffling a few feathers.

Critics refuted the article’s basic premise that this trend has become so commonplace it merits an entirely new categorization of mental development (“emerging adulthood,” which is now supposed to follow “adolescence” and precede “adulthood”) as being “one-sided, un-inclusive, and exaggerated,” primarily because it allegedly ignores the “many success stories” and the “unprecedented levels of accomplishment and achievement of so many of its members” (i.e. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg).

Indeed, there has been a long tradition of older generations decrying the perceived shortcomings of youth in society (“Get a haircut, you damn hippy!”), which is certainly not specific to American society. And taken in a Chinese context, this debate might seem culturally, or in this case, America-specific – many young Chinese, especially in the big cities, continue to live at home and depend on their parents far into their 20s, and in some cases, their 30s.

However one can still find parallels between the two societies – after all, for every “coddled urban rich kid” who may still be suckling at their parents’ proverbial teat, there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of young migrant workers who have had to strike out on their own and become breadwinners for themselves and extended families (a trend that the NYT article also acknowledges).

Speaking as a once-coddled 20-something myself, I tend to agree with the NYT on this one. It seems that as each successive generation “comes of age” it becomes harder and harder to go it alone – although economic factors (as in hard luck family backgrounds and global economic downturns) can certainly influence this, as many point out.

But the real crux of the argument lies in the question of how much of this phenomenon is culturally and even temporally constructed? I, for one, see parallels between Chinese and American society in the concept of “helicopter parents,” a term that the NYT describes as “heavily invested parents who hover over their children, swooping down to take charge and solve problems at a moment’s notice.” Quite frankly as parents (and the children of our own parents), we’ve all got “hovering issues” to deal with.

The other main question is whether or not recognizing “emerging adulthood” is a good thing.  To quote:

“Does that mean it’s a good thing to let 20-somethings meander — or even to encourage them to meander — before they settle down? That’s the question that plagues so many of their parents. It’s easy to see the advantages to the delay. There is time enough for adulthood and its attendant obligations; maybe if kids take longer to choose their mates and their careers, they’ll make fewer mistakes and live happier lives. But it’s just as easy to see the drawbacks. As the settling-down sputters along for the “emerging adults,” things can get precarious for the rest of us … So we’re caught in a weird moment, unsure whether to allow young people to keep exploring and questioning or to cut them off and tell them just to find something, anything, to put food on the table and get on with their lives.”

And a bit further down:

“Why does it matter? Because if the delay in achieving adulthood is just a temporary aberration caused by passing social mores and economic gloom, it’s something to struggle through for now, maybe feeling a little sorry for the young people who had the misfortune to come of age in a recession. But if it’s a true life stage, we need to start rethinking our definition of normal development and to create systems of education, health care and social supports that take the new stage into account.”

And finally, here’s my take:

Who doesn’t want to spend their 20s exploring the world, discovering their niche and generally living the life of a bon vivant? I know I certainly did in my younger days. No doubt that for most young people delaying adulthood is a fantastic experience – so long as you can afford it.

But for people in like my wife and me who have “been there and done that” and are now very much facing the real-life issues of adulthood in our late 30s*, the question now looms – why didn’t we just get on with it sooner?

*And to that I might add that we are among the lucky ones who, if worse comes to worse, can still rely on our families for support.