I can handle the whys of the two year olds. Why is that blue, why can’t I have a chocolate bar, why do I have to wear pants. Those are easy questions. As the kids get older, the questions get harder. They start to reason. They start to pick out hipocricy like editors picking out misspellings. They apply it to their own lives. Why does he get to stay out later and I have to go in? Why does she get new Pokemon cards and I don’t?
Yesterday Army Boy (7yrs) asked me one of the hardest questions. No, it wasn’t about the birds and the bees. A weight-loss commercial came on and he said “Mommy, why does everyone want to lose weight? Why do they say “WOW” when they lose weight? What’s so good about it?”
How do you explain societal pressures on thinness to a seven year old?
I stumbled a bit. Telling him that sometimes there are people who need to lose weight to be healthy. Because there are lots of diseases that can happen when you are too heavy. Diabetes, heart disease… but that some people lose too much weight and that’s not healthy either. Plus sometimes people like to be thinner because they think it means they can do more things. But really, you just need to be healthy and as long as you go to the doctor and he says you’re healthy, you are probably at a good weight.
Like you, I said, you’re very healthy and in great shape. You don’t need to worry about how much you weigh right now.
I hope it was a sufficient answer! At least I got to practice on the child that least likely to develop an eating disorder, when the daughter asks that it’s going to be much more difficult.
And, to complicate things, I started Weight Watchers yesterday, too. I have about 40 lbs to lose. But first let’s start with the 10% and then we can discuss the rest of the poundage. I don’t want to drop the weight fast, I just want to eat healthier and learn new recipes that will help me return to a healthy pre-child weight.
