The Starting End

I know, I know.

How could a Mother be so cold and blurt out on a blog that her Kids are FAT!?! How heartless and cruel I must be.

I just happen to hear it every day, from them. Multiple times in the day of just how FAT they are. So I CAN say it. And you know what? It’s true. Oh so very true.

They are indeed fat.

But wait, I only wish they knew just how.

As Teenage Girls see themselves through the reflection of a bad Ikea mirror ( I apologize to Ikea, for it is the impregnated images in their mind that gives the projection, not the poor quality of their mirror), they nit pick each and every hair out of place, each blemish that MAY show up,  and stand in a deep freeze  concentrated on pounds that are only visible to  their eyes of the wrong color. They are “fat”. They “see” it, they believe it.

What they DON’T see, is what we didn’t see, to a lesser extent as teenagers of the 70’s…the SKINNY of it all.  For decades now, and with the latest addition of Photoshop, we know and fight the “skinny” media. The “skinny” magazines, “skinny” commercials, “skinny” Hollywood and the thin line they walk holding and manipulating our  Childrens self confidence and worth. Taking perfectly healthy young Women and feeding them images of clothes not realistic for everyday lives and bodies, for a price tag equally unrealistic… period. Feeding them day in and day out, hour after hour till they are so full, they burst into tears. It is THAT definition, it is THAT food that makes them “fat”.

See my Girls ARE fat. They have the fattest hearts I know. The fattest ambitions and drive, admirable for their ages. They are fatly respected by their Teachers and Peers. The mirror from Ikea keeps them from seeing this part of them. Keeps them from seeing just how OBESE these qualities in them are.

My job, my obligation, as a Mom is to constantly counter the projection of this false SKINNY, this superficial BEAUTY, and keep feeding them food for their soul, food for their continuously growing heart, food that empowers them to love themselves as much as they are loved.  Food so potent that it will change, permanently, that reflection of the Ikea mirror.