Children Learn What They See

A client of mine has recently started focusing on the importance of instilling healthy habits in her children.  We have been talking a lot lately about today's mom and how overly sensitive they are about not wanting to place negative thoughts into their child's mind.  I agree that we need to be careful about how we display our likes or dislikes about our bodies, however, I feel that today's moms are so scared about their children developing an eating disorder or say becoming obese that we are forgetting that we can simply live the healthy lifestyle we so desperately want to instill in our children.  Instead of focusing on them not seeing us on the scale or hearing us make a comment about the wrinkles, just remember they are watching us and what they see will be what they remember.

For example, my clients husband works nights, so every morning when he comes home, she goes running while he does the breakfast routine.  Then when she comes home, she does her stretches or her cross training right there in the living room.  Her daughter watches all of this.  She has started asking my client if she can exercises with her.  She gets down with her mom as she stretches, she drinks out of the water bottles when she "starts to sweat", she puts her tennis shoes on when mommy does.  She even asks for a set of headphones to listen to.  She is mimicking what mommy is doing. 

                                           This is her daughter doing the superman pose! 

Don't kids mimic everything we do?  Haven't we all seen it?  So what if they see us get on the scale or pinch our love handles.  Lets encourage them to understand why we weighing ourselves or measuring.  Let them also see us run, stretch, go with out makeup, eat our fruits and veggies and smile.  Smiling and having joy is more contagious then we realize!

 

I am so tired of social media and the power of the "selfie".  Puckered lips, pushed up bosoms, sexy bathing suits.  Moms, this is the negative power our children with be forced to fight daily.  We need to teach them that beauty does not come from the comments left on our self indulging photos we took with our phone.  We need to teach them that being healthy in our mind can reflect being healthy in our bodies.  They need to hear us say they are beautiful, even at their worst.  Because, after all, we are all beautiful.