Yesterday, Luke decided he likes to be shirtless. He was shirtless when I got to Grandmother's after work, and he refused to wear a shirt to bed (he did put one on at the table because that's one of the rules). Dave and I were standing in the kitchen last night at bedtime, discussing this new quirk and trying to decide why he is suddenly a shirtless little boy child. Dave doesn't go shirtless often, usually only in the dead of summer while we are sitting around the back porch pool.
He used to sleep shirtless, and I asked him why he started wearing a tshirt to bed. He flippantly commented something about covering his "fat belly". Ella happened to have joined us in the kitchen by this point, so she chimed right in with this little nugget of wisdom.
Ella: (very matter-of-factly)Daddy, how old are you?
Dave: 34
Ella: (reassuringly) Oh, yeah, because 34s are fat.
At which point I commenced uncontrollably giggling. Then she went on to elaborate that 55s have bigger bellies. The good news is, she hasn't yet attached any arbitrary value to fat vs. thin, and the way she said it was very positive, even a bit encouraging.
Helping them develop a healthy body image is something that is important to me and Dave, and given her postive perspective of "fat," I think we are doing okay with that. However, I also think this proved that we need to be more conscious of the way we think and talk about our bodies, because she is paying attention. I've never heard her use the word "fat" to describe a person before last night. We are careful about the words we use when we talk to them about their bodies, and about healthy eating habits, choosing healthy foods, getting exercise, and wearing clothes that fit appropriately. We generally model healthy eating and an active lifestyle, but I think we also need to model a healthy body image- even if we have to fake it sometimes.
Right now, at 4 and 2, they are very comfortable with their bodies. I hope they will always be.
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