The obession with weight has become a disease in inself. Rather than focusing on eating right and living a healthy life which includes outdoor activities and excercise the spotlight is on dieting and the extremeties of Anorexia, Bolemia, etc.
I have seen few families where the moms actually play outdoors with their little girls... there is no harm in throwing a frisbee or playing tag instead of huddling with the other moms as the kids take a ride on the swings. If we dont show them what is right, how will they learn?
I could be totally wrong, im not a mother, and i dont mean to condem mothers- there is so much they do and so well... but i notice this one missing in our desi culture.
my 4 yr old niece is saying things like that already. Everytime she eats a meal she asks "is my tummy getting big?" and she has this concerned look on her face. I'm really worried about her. It's unbelievable that kids so young are worried about things like this...quite frightening actually. I think it may have something to do with that fact that my sister is trying to lose her pregnancy weight and she diets and works out. Maybe she is hearing all this stuff from her?
True, i can relate to that. I was a stick when I was a kid and always heard, “Saima thoray say motay hojow na. Op kutch kothay ho ya nay?” I heard this constantly and it started making me mad. I had never thought of my self-image or my body before that. I was just a kid who ate burgers and fries and had no care in the world. But all the adults around me were making me feel abnormal somehow. Anyways I was a gymnast and as I got a little older I started to fear that I would become too fat and clumsy for the sport. I began to fear it was inevitable. I remember as a kid that I developed an aversion to meat. I must have been 8 or 9 and I remember cutting down on food especially dinner with my parents. At the time I didn’t know why I was doing it. It wasn’t a conscious thing to avoid getting fat. I think it became a control issue. Luckily my parents didn’t force me or punish me and I eventually grew out of it. I think it was a warning sign though because when I turned 14-15 I did develop anorexia which lasted a few years.
Now I have a daughter who is a stick like I was at her age. I’m very aware of things that may give her bad body image or food issues. The first thing I’m aware of is setting a good example for her. We talk about food making her strong and giving her energy. But I can’t control the influences she will get from the media. Her concept of beauty and femininity are already being formed. We’ll have address issues as they come along.