After I picked my jaw up off the floor I quickly said "It's ok to be fat, Gabe." But he wouldn't let it go. He was stuck on this idea that when he grows up that he'll be fat, maybe because I'm fat? and that he'll have to lose weight. So I asked him point blank "What's wrong with being fat?" and thank the Goddess he couldn't think of anything. I was prepared for some kind of nasty answer, like fat people are gross or lazy, but he thought about it and said "Some people don't want to be fat. I don't." So I guess that's something.
He also likes exercise equipment commercials, saying how he wants to buy X thing and use it so he can build his muscles. Part of me just wants to turn the TV off when this stuff comes on, or change the channel, but I don't because I want to talk about it and challenge the messages he's receiving. As with 'junk food', if I hide it, it makes it more enticing. Instead I try to talk about how his body is still growing and it needs play, good foods and rest in order to grow big and strong. If Ryan's home, we emphasize that it took daddy a long time to grow as big and strong as he is, and that he wasn't always that way, that our bodies change over time, and that ALL BODIES are 'good' bodies, that it takes all shapes and sizes to make the world go round.
Constant vigilance.
Great post! You are lucky to have a child who talks to you about this! So many children just watch and file it in their brains never knowing or understanding the whole picture of being healthy! Thanks Jen!
It's really scary to me that kids get the idea that fat is something they don't want to be before there are even any reasons. Media, advertising, programming... it's really just scary to me what messages are out there and making into our kids' (and our!) brains.