So tonight we're eating dinner. Our six year old comments about how skinny her little sister is (she is VERY thin - a tall, almost four year old with the waist size of a 24mth old). M says, "she's so skinny and I'm fat." Of course we immediately jump all over that. M is not fat at all, really, not parental bias talking here. She's small (go figure). In fact she is so small that she is the second smallest kid in a SK/grade 1 split class at school and she's in grade one. But she's not a petite, little elfin waif. She has a cute little compact muscular build. My husband likes to call her the "pocket rocket". A few hours later she said it again "I'm fat." Once more we reassured her that she is in no way fat and she replies that her friend "M" is skinny and she wants to be skinny like "M". My husband tells her skinny isn't pretty. She rolls her eyes and leaves the room.
Why oh why at six years old is my child now worried about her weight?! We're not sure if this requires further investigation (ie. has someone said something to her) or if she's just testing the waters and checking our reaction. In the mean time I'm left shaking my head. What a sad commentary on our society.
1 year ago
6 comments:
Oh, no! Someone must have said something to her, I can't image a six year old being worried about their weight! It's so hard in our society, especially with girls! It's hard to make them understand that it's not about being skinny, it's about being healthy. I think the best thing you can do is continue to reassure her, and help her learn to love her body the way it is.
That's a tough one. With my twins (who are six) one is thin and one is very very very thin. They comment on each others weight and body type and we always remind them that everyone is built differently.
I'd love to blame it on TV or fashion mags, but we have neither of those in our house. I think it might just be idle curiosity at that age (I hope). As a mom of 3 girls, I still feel like I need to *watch* the weight attitudes carefully . . . but some of it is just exploring differences.
Like Vivi said, we emphasize healthy bodies all the time - sleep, healthy food, fresh air.
I imagine it would be very difficult if you had a child that was overweight. How hard to balance teaching them to love their body *and* lose weight all at the same time.
Check this out. One of my eight year old twins is skin and bones, the other one is chubby. Neither of them have ever noticed or commented or asked any questions whatsoever. And the only difference between them and every other kid it their classes: they've never had TV.
Something to consider.
V/E - We do. We try to live a fairly active lifestyle - skating, swimming, biking, karate (well she does karate, not us!)
R - That's great that your girls don't have any issues with their differences. That's the way it should be. While we do have a tv our kids generally only get to watch public tv kids' programming (educational cartoons & shows/no commercials). I think this is coming from school.
Good grief! She's ANTHING but fat! That word would never even crossed my mind in regards to her! The only child who is even anywhere near overweight in their class is J! And Mlle. is going to change that for him, if she has her way! ;)
S was about that age when she started worrying about being too skinny....thankfully, that has passed and now she's pleased with her shape...
Wow, who would've thought at six little girls would be having these thoughts? Poor M. She's such a beauty and has nothing to worry about.
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