Our Sizeist Attitude Starts At Birth
Did we ever have a chance at having a healthy body image?
--
It all starts at birth
He was 6 lbs 13 oz.
It’s a number I’ll probably never forget.
I’ve been a mom for 9 months now and it’s understandable that at this time, it’s all about how much weight he’s gaining or not gaining. His weight, height, even his head circumference matters at this point.
We weigh him regularly.
It’s important at this stage in his life to ensure we track his weight because it can be crucial to both his physical and mental development. We track and track because we need to. But we also do something else at this stage of his (and other babies) young life — we make comments and remarks about how big, heavy, small, or skinny he his. There’s no intention behind these comments, good or bad. They just come out because sizeism is so ingrained in our culture and in our identity that it becomes a natural part of us.
Since birth, we’ve subject him to sizeism and body discrimination. Eventually we won’t need to weigh him anymore. Both he and I will grow out of that stage. What we don’t grow out of is the “need” to make the comments about their body and about other people’s body.
How kids view their body is a reflection of us as parents and as a society
Keaton has started to blow raspberries aka spitting all over my husband and I. How did he learn how to do that?
From us.
Because we thought it was cute and funny and, now, instead of laughs we get spit in our face.
Kids will mimic us and internalize everything we do and say to them so we need to be careful especially when it comes to treating our own bodies with the respect they deserve.
Our insecurities or security about our bodies will be passed down to our kids. No matter how hard we try to hide them from our little ones, they notice everything and they will either become exactly like us or try their hardest to become anything but us. So whatever we do as parents will eventually be passed down in one way or another and I don’t know about other…
