Monkey See, Monkey Do?

A Facebook conversation today left me thinking about girls and body image and acceptance and how all of those things are tangled together with images and attitudes and expectations. Our (albeit brief) conversation concerned a celebrity who may or may not be a little too thin and how seeing that affects our girls.

I’m not denying there are unrealistic portrayals of women in our celebrity-obsessed culture. I also think it’s one of our most important jobs as parents to raise our kids to be true to themselves, in spite of the pressure that is going to bombard them from all sides.

Maybe it’s a devil’s advocate reaction, but I have a problem condemning every tiny body staring at us from a magazine cover, “She’s too thin!” I have friends who are super thin but still healthy, so I don’t think skinny automatically equals unhealthy. Are some of the ultra-skinny women out there unhealthy? Sure. But I also think that some of them parlay a combination of good genes and hard work into that body shape.

Of course, that means that I somehow have to teach Abbey to accept her body and other people’s bodies in ALL shapes and sizes. Despite my own body issues, I’m trying to set a healthy example by eating relatively well and running and staying active. I monitor what I say about my own body. I plan on having honest conversations about it as she gets older.

Will that be enough? I don’t know. Images are powerful motivators and so is peer pressure. Will my efforts fail in the face of emulating the “it girls” of 2023? If I’m still blogging ten years from now, will I be packing mayo-laden sandwiches and sending them off to Hollywood stylists?

a new game at our house

Abbey and I call it "giant Dylan"

he lurks in the back of the dollhouse, laughing

then a little (giant) hand sneaks around the corner

and grabs something from the side where we're playing 

of course, she needs to get in on the action, too