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A few days ago, I posted about how Elizabeth mimics some of what we do. I've already found something I would rather she not mimic: weighing in on the scale.
I track my weight every day using the Google 15 gadget on my Google homepage. There are lots of reasons why tracking my weight everyday is helpful, but I won't go into that now. Back to the story. I weigh in every morning in reasonably the same conditions each day - same clothes, before breakfast. In the past, I just stepped into the bathroom (where we keep our scale) and weighed, door open, Elizabeth usually following me as she does throughout the day. Recently, after I got off the scale, Elizabeth stepped onto it, and stood perfectly still, while looking down towards the number.
I find this disturbing. What kind of lessons am I teaching her about her body, and her self worth? Am I setting her up for obsessing over her weight? What other things am I teaching her that are negative, but I have no idea I'm doing?
Now I plan on weighing in at a time when she can't see - before she gets up (not likely) or by simply shutting the bathroom for a minute while I track my progress. Hopefully, I'll stop daily weigh ins here in a few months as I approach my target weight and learn to maintain good fitness and health, so she won't have a lasting impression of her mom always checking out how much she weighs.
While there are lots of things that I don't mind being mimicked, poor attitudes and practices regarding health and fitness are not anything worth copying!
1 comments:
I'm a blog hopper just out being nosy but my kids started this also (checking thier weight) so we turned into something healthy, their weight is 'points' and we explained that we have to have good points...not lots of points just good points, and that food can help us stay in the points...eating the right foods and going outside to play...it's not about weight but health!
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