So Chickadee had a great first day of school, and Monkey had a pretty good first day of homeschooling, but then Chickadee came home with stories about her classes and friends, and THEN had to spend the evening on the computer, taking a seminar to go with her virtual math class (“Is this class conducted in space? Is the math itself all theoretical and based on futuristic robots?”), and while we were prepping dinner Monkey cut his thumb, and suddenly the two weeks until Hippie School begins was FOREVER and it wasn’t FAIR and life was SAD.
Fortunately, Monkey is resilient. Also, we made a LOT of cookies yesterday (I was, uh, teaching him! About sugar and butter!), and as we all know, EVERYTHING is better with cookies. This morning seemed brighter, especially with cookies promised for after lunch. Today is Chickadee’s first full day of school followed by an evening of marching band, so I packed her extras, even. All hail the power of cookies!
Of course, I have an ulterior motive, too: cookies are a great way to make sure my daughter isn’t completely buying into the hive-mind assurance that everyone who isn’t a supermodel is fat. I’m over at Off Our Chests today, wondering how in the world my 5’4″, 85-pound child doesn’t realize that she’s skinny.
I hate that. I once found a pair of jeans in my closet that I wore when i was a freshman in college and thought, “god, I wish I could wear those again!” Then i realized that even then I thought I was fat. What is that!?
Savage Garden said it best, “Beauty magazines promote low self esteem.”
I am a one woman war against comments like…
“but he’s so good looking why would he… you fill in the blank… murder, steal, lie, rob, whatever.”
“She’s funny, witty, and beautiful, she can do… anything, win the nobel prize, whatever.”
American society bases the worth of a person on the beauty, it’s not even on their looks, it’s there beauty and sadly we’re only talking skin deep, not the beauty held within. My battle continues.
Chickie, you are a smart and amazing young lady with a full future ahead of you, don’t by into the poisoned hype of America’s beauty industry… drat of America. You’re perfect just the way you are.
Baking and cooking are great ways to apply math and science to real life. Have Monkey double or halve a recipe for you some day.
This societal preoccupation with skinniness is so unhealthy. A close friend almost lost her daughter to anorexia two years ago. This was a college student, extremely bright, in pre-med program, and wow. Her anorexia nearly killed her. Good for you, reminding Chickie what a wonderful young woman she is!
Saw this timely little ditty in my Google reader and thought of you and Chickie.
http://ecochildsplay.com/2011/08/09/my-body-image-helping-moms-and-daughters-accept-their-natural-beauty/
My 8 year old is getting obsessed with food and exercise and it scares me to death. She’s been reading nutrition labels and asking lots of questions and asking to use our treadmill. (Most of the time I say no and tell her to just go play outside.) She’s been asking if she is fat since she was FIVE. The irony is that she is my skinniest child. If she lost any weight, it would be a problem.
I’ve been trying to focus her energies on what is healthy. I’ve been teaching her about protein being important, and how our bodies actually do need some fat. This mama bear is on high alert. I don’t know where she gets it, either, because we’ve always been really careful about how we talk about things. Whenever I do something with my eating habits (like recently I’ve given up soda), it’s always “to get healthier”, it’s never “to lose weight.” Sigh.
Sadly, boys are not immune. Ryan has decided he wants weights for Christmas. He’s 11. Why? Well, his little penpal “girlfriend” was talking about a neighbor boy having a six pack one day in front of Ryan. We’re torn on whether or not we’re going to let him have them. The irony of this one is that Ryan? Already kind of has a six pack naturally, and he doesn’t even know it. Sigh.
This is the part where I dream about running away to a deserted island, and taking the kids with me.
p.s.-anyone that hasn’t read this article, should. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/how-to-talk-to-little-gir_b_882510.html
If your band practice is anything like ours, she will lose weight during band season. My older son’s first season, he lost 20 lbs! He gained it back once the season ended though. The next season he only lost 10 lbs, but he’d grown taller. This time he kept the weight off. My other son refuses to tell me his weight, so I don’t know exact numbers, but he did get pretty thin last year (his first year). He managed to keep most of it off. Both of my boys started with a little extra weight, so it was good for them to lose. Anyway, the point is, as little as she weighs, it will be good for her to eat some cookies.
I look at pictures of my teenaged self, too, and wonder if kids on the playground hadn’t started calling me fat when I was 8 (when I was really perfectly healthy) if I might not be obese now – I always thought I was fat, and I never acted otherwise – I was too fat to be athletic, too fat to bother eating properly, etc, etc. I was at Weight Watchers by 12. I have no idea what my mother was thinking. Obviously, I’m responsible for my own decisions and I have to somehow undo all that programming, but I can’t quite keep from sighing, “if only”…