Few weeks ago when I picked up my girls from school, one of my daughter’s friends needed a ride home so I offered to take her. As the girls were getting in the car, the friend said to my daughter “I have a big butt, I won’t fit in the middle seat, can you sit there?” Mind you, this girl is beautiful and skinny, no part of her is big.
At first I was shocked to hear a 9 year old girl talk in a negative way about her body. It actually broke my heart because she is beautiful in every way. At an early age this little girl is learning about self-image and it doesn’t seem very positive. Whether she’s learning about it from home, school, or anywhere else, it’s happening, and it’s starting to shape this young girl’s opinion about herself and her body.
No young girl should ever think or speak that way about herself. Actually, no one should, whether young girls, boys, or grown up women and men. When we have a positive self-image it leads to having a stronger self-confidence and self-esteem, we can walk into a room and own it. The minute we start doubting ourselves and our bodies we start tearing ourselves down, and our confidence and self-esteem start to slowly diminish. It’s so easy to look at ourselves in the mirror and start pointing out what’s wrong and what we wish to change, instead of focusing on what’s positive about our image. We would never like it nor allow it for others to point out our negatives, nor would we want others to talk to us in a negative and demeaning way so why is it okay for us to do it to ourselves?
Whether you have children or not, practicing positive self-image is extremely important! Every time you find yourself talking negatively about yourself, give yourself a pep talk and for every negative you’d like to change, find a positive that you appreciate about yourself. There are enough unrealistic expectations out there in the world, we don’t need to add to them, we need to break the vicious cycle and build ourselves up. We are all created in a beautiful image so own any room you walk into and teach your current or future children to do the same.
