"Mommy, Am I Fat?"

The title of this post is something I never want to hear my daughter ask me, especially at an age as young as three. Last week, when I was shopping in the shoe section at Target, I overheard a little girl no older than four tell her dad that she feels fat. I was disgusted, heartbroken, and shocked. I'm sure the girl hardly knew what it meant but it only proved how easily children pick up on what they hear people say. I can't even imagine having a poor body image at that age. It would be a piece of your childhood being taken away. I hate to say that I actually forgot about that until this feature titled, "Mommy, Am I Fat?" came on Good Morning America this morning about girls as young as three years old fretting about body image. According to the feature, more and more young girls are being teased at school because of their weight and are therefore being made more aware of it. It is also apparent that many of these little girls are picking up on what they hear their moms or teachers saying about their weight and dieting. The lesson here to me is to make sure we never verbalize any sort of body image issues in front of kids. I think that people don't often realize how much children pick up on and actually apply to themselves. Even if you're not bringing yourself down around them but talking about dieting or another person's body, it plants a seed in the child's mind that could lead to a lifetime of body image struggles. Our society's pressures are hard enough. Let's not add more on top of that.