But today, I intend to do exactly that. Rant. Because when an acquaintance insinuates that my three month-old daughter needs to lose weight? This Momma Bear loses her cool. (almost). With all the calmness I could muster, I patted my darling on the tummy and said, "No. THIS? This is perfect. It's JUST perfect."
That's all I said, aside from a polite little joke about hoping she doesn't acquire her dad's physique someday...(but you know what? That'd be just fine with me too! I wish I wasn't always so polite.)
Yes, this woman was clearly projecting some ill-informed personal body issues onto my daughter. It's her problem, not ours. But the sad truth that struck me like lightening yesterday, was that this has already become a pattern. My daughter has already gotten more "body comments" from strangers than my son (who's been around 2 years and 3 months longer) has ever received. In fact, I cannot cite a time when anyone seemed the least bit concerned about Briggs' pudgy adorable (age appropriate) body shape.
But Blaire? Now girl, you gotta lose some weight. You've already been in this world for over 3 months!!! You're not crawling yet? You know a good girl exercises....and on and on and on.
What makes me the most sad about this absurd situation is that the Momma Bear in me has already identified the most difficult battle I will face with Blaire. That is, teaching her to ignore (or clarify for the ignorant) all the gazillion body shaming messages that will come her way.
Do I occasionally find myself feeling shamed from all the negative female bodies messages around us? Absolutely, but I'm going to try my hardest to identify and debunk every single one of them from now on, because my daughter, my 3 month-old daughter, needs the best ally she can get. And that, my friends, is gonna be this Momma Bear.
So if you see Blaire, and you want to make an unseemly comment about how she needs to lose weight. Just don't. Ever. To any girl. Ever. Thanks.
And if you're a mom fighting this battle alongside me, I'd love to hear your game plan.
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| "No. THIS? This is perfect. It's JUST perfect." |
She is perfect Emily, Don't let it bother you, sadly some people just don't have filters :( I breast fed Rylee and he was soooooo chubby ! And doctors even commented on how he is at risk for obesity. I even had a guy call my Rylee a Fat So! I wanted to cry because to me he was perfect, well he is not chubby at all anymore he lost all those precious rolls, as he got to moving around walking& running. Your baby girl is soooo cute and not even close to the size Ry Ry was:) God is Good and you have a beautiful daughter and family. Hugs ❤️ Jen Hofer
ReplyDeleteJen, thank you for adding your story. The more vocal we are, the more likely we are to debunk some weird myth that there's a perfect body out there...especially for little adorable squishy babies, but really any age. Hugs right back!
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