My second daughter is overweight. She is not obese nor is she the type of child that people stare at in the street, unable to hide their disgust! She is very tall for a nine-year-old and she is beautiful—striking, even. Most important, she is a very considerate, loving child with a fantastic sense of humor and an infectious laugh. But, she is overweight. Now why does it seem like I have overridden all of her fantastic character traits with some singlular negative phrasing?
Because this is what happens in real life. It seems that no matter how talented, beautiful or intelligent one is, if they are fat they are deemed to be a failure in some way. Look at Oprah Winfrey, for example, one of the most successful women in the world and yet she finds herself entangled in a constant battle of the bulge. We are bombarded by media bias toward fat people daily. Weight-loss products and programs scream, “Sort yourself out, you big, fat heap, and we guarantee your life will be better.”
Photo Credit: DLSimaging via Flickr.
Images of svelte women casually strolling on a beach, wind blowing in their hair and toned thighs rippling as their toes sink in the sand haunt our subconscious as we bite into our sandwiches. We all know that for most of us our holiday minutes look nothing like this.
Picture copious layering to hide stretch marks and spare tires, stumbling through sand dunes with mouthfuls of hair and suncream as you almost break your ankle trying to negotiate such hostile terrain and you have a more realistic view of how it actually is for numerous of us. And that’s okay because life isn’t an advert or a reality tv show. However, what’s not okay is how we have been brainwashed into thinking that this is how it should be, but I digress and that’s a subject for another day. Back to my daughter.
Like most parents, I too struggle to take care of their emotional needs in order to ensure that my kids grow up with as much confidence and self love as possible. The question I am posing, however, is this. Should we continue to lie to our kids and tell them that they look fine, that they’re not putting on weight, that it’s what’s on the inside that counts when reality is staring them in the face? Are we simply teaching our kids to learn to live with the uncomfortableness and shame surrounding weight gain instead of enabling them to free themselves from the vicious cycle which most of us can say we’ve been entangled in at some point or other?
Firstly, let us ask the other question, Is being overweight all that bad? I have noticed a surge in posts and articles relating to the above, with the authors claiming to love themselves no matter what, throwing their proverbial Bridget Jones’s knickers to the world in an attempt to say that they just don’t care what everyone thinks. But how helpful is this attitude? If it wasn’t an issue in the first place then why feel the need to write about it? It’s because we are bothered.
Being overweight isn’t fun. I know. I’ve been there and probably will be back again. The truth is I yo -yo. My body also changed after having kids. My appetite changes as does my interest in exercise. Weight isn’t always a given. You can control it, that for me is the secret and that is precisely what I tell my daughter.
When she came residence last week and told me that she had been called fat by a boy at school, I stalled for a moment. I knew that she wanted me to say that he was wrong, that he was a brat and that I would get straight onto his parents and teachers and call him out for bullying. But what good would that do? What do I do the next time she’s called fat, or the next time she cries in the changing room because nothing “looks right” on her?
If I could shield her from the world and protect her from every jibe and insult, I would. I would love to see her enjoy a healthy relationship with food and to indulge her appetite to a degree but you see I can’t. It is affecting how she views herself and those around her. She wants to know what obese people look like as opposed to fat people. She’s already commenting on heavily obese people in the street and judgementalism is a burden which I definitely do not want my kids lumbered with.
So, I turned around and said, “Yes, sweetheart, you have gained weight.” Her eyes filled with tears for a moment and she felt the weight of the comment land squarely on her nine year old shoulders. But I resisted the deadly urge to back track. I got down to her level and told her how beautiful and funny she is. I reminded her of how numerous friends she has actually ( she is extremely popular amongst her classmates). I told her how she was going to stretch and all of that extra weight would disappear as it did with her older sister, and that everyone has actually different ideas of what “fat” actually is anyway.
But then I told her that her eating choices had been less than healthy of late. She nodded as she recounted the extra biscuits that she’d eaten and the snacking between meals. I told her that I like to indulge too and that I would make a big effort with her in order to drop a few pounds because it was the “healthy” thing to do, not because of what that boy at school said. I told her that all that sugar was bad for her anyway and that she could have a little bit of anything she liked, everything in moderation. I also told her that she is in control, that “you can lose weight, but you can’t lose ugly” and that’s most important!
Gradually, the tears stopped and she straightened up, thanked me for telling her the truth which she knew anyway and said she was looking forward to making a change and doing more exercise. She jumped up on her bike with her gorgeous shiny chestnut hair blowing around her glowing face and cycled off to play with her sisters.
You see, I know from experience how much better I feel when I am happy in my own skin.. when I don’t have to deal with layers of excess weight bulging out over my jeans or under my bra straps. I feel lighter when I’m at a healthy weight for my body ( of course it’s different for everybody, based on height and body mass). I don’t believe in clothes sizes, just your own personal “happy” size. I know when I look and feel good and I know when I don’t, and if I don’t, I do something about it, in the age-old, time-tested method of “less in, more out!”
I want my daughter to be in control too. I would love to be able to honestly say that being over weight doesn’t matter or won’t have any bearing on her happiness, but I know from experience that this isn’t true and I won’t lie to her. What I will do is help her achieve her goals, whatever they may be.
Weight should not define us and we shouldn’t let it. Unfortunately, this is the case as is propagated by mainstream media. Being fat is seen as a failing in some regards. I personally don’t see it as a failure, but as a moment of flux which can be changed if one so wishes.
I am aware that some people reading this will say that they are very happy and self-assured in their own skin regardless, and I applaud you for your self assuredness. However, I myself am unable to find contentment in the midst of weight gain. This does not mean that I allowed my children to pick up on my insecurities either. In fact, one of our favorite things to do together as a family is to eat. I just know from listening to colleagues and from my job working with teenage girls how important one’s figure is to the majority for overall self-confidence. It is also healthier to be a good weight for your height and to ensure fast and processed foods are eaten sparingly.
Of course, health comes first too. I know of parents who are fitness fanatics and whose children are following suit, running miles daily and getting up at 6 a.m. to do the plank before school. That to me is torture of a different kind, and I’d much rather see my child dig into a plate of pasta and go outside afterwards to work it off with some unstructured play time.
There’s plenty of time for all of that competitiveness and structure later on. Kids need to be kids while they can. Life is tough enough later on without us adding to it with our own prejudices and projected life goals.
So, in short, I refuse to give in to the brand-new age movement of refusing to allow my children to feel or experience any negetivity in their lives. I am not the parent who is going to shield them from everything in life. I am not going to tell them that they “can achieve all their dreams” and that the only thing stopping them is themselves. This is total bull, in my opinion.
We all have dreams and goals but little things like, oh, I don’t know, MONEY, for example, have a habit of getting in the way of those little chestnuts. I actually find that those brand-new catchphrases which our social media outlets are bombarded with daily do more harm than good, leaving us wondering well why aren’t I driving that yellow Lamborghini down the highway? I must be a failure. I don’t have enough self-belief to succeed like everyone else!
The truth is, I might want desperately to be a top athlete but my back is fecked from having four children, my size 34 DD boobs are constantly in my way as I try to run, leaving my shoulders in excruciating pain. No amount of self-belief will change these physical, concrete facts. What I can do is to focus on my individual strengths instead of wasting time dreaming about the impossible.
There are numerous things that I am really good at and can and have succeeded in, as my daughters will, but I won’t allow them waste their time dreaming about becoming a top model( I really don’t think this is on their to-do list anyway) when it is nothing short of a genetic lottery which certainly will not favor this Irish woman’s “child- bearing hips” physique or her offspring, for that matter.
I will focus my kids on their strengths and nourish those instead. My kids know that they can follow their dreams, but within reason!I feel that it’s actually okay to have limits and that it’s precisely those limits which in some way define us. I will do anything I can to help them realize their goals, and if telling them the odd harsh truth along the way is necessary, then so be it!
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