As the kids have been away this week, I have taken advantage of doing a little thrift store browsing.� I found myself at a consignment shop today because it was near where I was running some errands.� I found nothing (overpriced in my opinion but I am a cheap bitch.� Also, who would have thought I would more trouble now finding my size than I would have two years ago and 109 pounds heavier?), but as I was getting ready to leave, I overheard a conversation�by a mother talking to her friend�about the�the mother's�teenage daughter, who was present for this conversation.� It went something like this:
Mother: Yes, she has really big arms.� She plays volleyball, so she has big arms and chubby legs.� I will see a dress or something and think how cute it is but her arms are too big and she can't wear it."
WTF?� The girl is athletic obviously and an impressionable teenage girl and her mother is critiquing her body in a negative way.� C'mon.��I mean really, doesn't the world know that we not only have an obesity epidemic but also eating disorders problems, especially amongst teenage girls?� As women especially, I think we are so critical of our bodies from a very young age.� I remember my mother putting me on a diet at about the age of 8 or 9.� You don't forget those kinds of things.� I was the only kid in my class who was on one and my lunch showed it.� My parents had the best intentions, but it only made me feel different, and it led to a lifetime of feeling different where my body was concerned.� This mother has done something very similar to her daughter, at least today.
Jimnotmike would probably have said something, but I didn't, though now I wish I had, even if it was just to tell this girl she was beautiful, just as she was.� I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this girl will always remember those words as I have many words spoken to me in the past that I remember and always will.
I have been lacking for blog fodder lately.� I think I am in desperate need of a vacation.� T minus 10 days.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Parents, mind what you say to your daughters
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You're right, I would have praised the daughter on her beauty and found something catty and bitchy to say about the way the mom looked. I actually was in a similar situation where a mother and father were criticizing their "obviously(to me)gay teenage son" about some of his choices in clothing in a store. The father actually went as far as to use one of my favorite(sarcastic!) terms "That's so gay". So, I grabbed the same shirt, handed to the father and said, "It would look perfect on you" and walked away. Parents need to get a clue...in this Information Age we live in there just no excuse, other than carelessness, for such dimwittedness.
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