At what age do we send kids to the gym or limit their diet when they still have baby fat????
Do we limit a child's food when they are 2 years old and are still chubby from breast feeding or drinking cows milk ???
3-4 years old and still a bit chubby, is this the time to limit their nutritional intake for growth ????
5-8 years old, is this the time to put girls and boys on a diet so they resemble the other kids that just by metabolism be naturally thin???
What to do with a 9 or 10 year old girl that begins to grow boobs, bind them so they look like their classmates. Some girls mature fast and have periods at 10, do we swear them to secrecy as they are different from other class mates?????
Girls that mature slowly do we buy them padded bras so they look like their classmates???? Give them the idea that they are deformed in some way and now have to fake it??????
What the **** are we doing to our kids in trying to make them all look alike by using a Holleywood scale on what is right and wrong????
Give nature a chance to do what is right for the kids, if later on down the line the kids decide to exercise or diet for their own reasons encourage them.
It is child abuse to to try to make over a young child to what you want them to look like. To insist a child of any size or shape resemble everyone else is horrid, removes self identity and in the end gives us angry and out of control children.
Fancy having parents that are thin, a sibling that is thin and have all of them feeding you rabbit food while they eat meat and potatoes. The conclusion to the child is that they are deformed, bad or an embarrassment to their family.
My ex's older sister is small boned, about 5'4", when we were in our 20's (when I first met her), she was obsessive about her weight and lived on coffee, TAB and cigarettes. (Her husband, father, uncles, brother are all doctors). She was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in her early 30's. Since she was treated with steroids, which made her "blow up", she became even more obsessive with her weight. About the only thing that changed in her "diet" was she switched out the TAB for Diet Coke. From pictures I have seen of her, that my kids have had, she's still very thin, and I think she has quit smoking.
Her husband, 30 years ago, was a short, stubby, husky guy. Maybe 5'6" on a tall day, and close to 180 or so. He has thinned down over the years, at some point decided he would start running and has stayed fairly trim for someone with a larger bone structure.
Their oldest child is a boy. He is built just like his mother, only is a bit taller, but thin and never had to worry about weight. Very bright, a
doctor, married with twins. Yeah...he's PERFECT.
Their second child - a daughter - died of SIDS at 5 weeks.
Their third child is Kate. Kate was my flower girl when I got married. She was two and a half, and quite cute but also quite chubby. She has her father's bone structure.
I was a member of that family, for 15 years. In all that time, I never ever remember anyone in that family saying a complimentary thing about Kate.
She was "fat". She "has the biggest, ugliest hands and feet". She "has terrible hair". She's "a slob". She's "not very bright". She "has fat thighs". My ex mother in law, was absolutely hateful about that child. Her own mother wasn't much better.
A month after Kate turned 15, she attempted suicide. Thank God, she was found in time. She spent the next 60 days in a psych hospital in Omaha, then was packed off to MN to boarding school to repeat her sophmore year of high school, and stay there until she graduated from high school. Couldn't have her in their small town, and sully the family reputation you know.
I've seen her picture on facebook because both of my kids are "friends" with her.
She is now 36, divorced with 3 beautiful children, a teacher, and a truly beautiful blonde woman. Slender, about 5'2 or 3", and from what my kids say, she's a super terrific person.
They also have said that she doesn't spend much time with her parents. Gee, I wonder why?
Kate's a perfect example of the damage a child's own family can do, when the child doesn't look just like them.
