Beautiful Like Me: A look in the mirror
April 6, 2009
Filed under Bear, Beautiful Like Me, The Mother Hen, The Tribe, family, parenting
Welcome to the kick off week for the Beautiful Like Me project. This week, we will be writing about ourselves. The question we are looking to answer is “Does how we look at ourselves effect how the next generation (your kids, grandkids, stepkids, friends kids, etc.) looks at themselves? Why or Why not?” My co-hosts are the lovely Amy at FiveFlowerMom and the enchanting Tricia at Shout. Please stop by and check them out.
I have thought about this a lot lately. I wonder if I say that I don’t like my brown eyes (which I do), if the Mother Hen will not like hers. She is the only one of the girls with brown eyes. The other two have Bear’s blue eyes. All 5 of us have big legs. We are all blessed with strong highlander legs. But, this makes for a challenge as a female. Pants that fit our waist won’t get past our thighs. This has caused tears on more than one occasions. But, if I say that I hate my legs all the time, will it make them hate their own legs?
I really think that how I look at myself effects how they look at themselves. Not just because we share some features but, because they will think that being self-depricating all of the time is acceptable. While we can make jokes about ourselves, and tease each other, I think it is important to also respect ourselves. The jokes should help them to not feel bad when a bully says it to them. But at their cores, I want the girls to truly look at themselves as I see them. I want them to know that they are beautiful in their own way. I think that starts with me. I think it starts with how I look at myself. And, so I choose to look at myself as beautiful. Bear has been trying to tell me that for years. Today, I am making the choice to believe him.
If you would like to join us, please grab a badge and sign up with Mr. Linky. Participants names and blogs will be posted on the Beautiful Like Me Home Page. Posts are due by April 20th. Check the home page for upcoming post topics which are coming soon.
The lovely ladies already participating:
Amy – Five Flower Mom
Tricia -Shout
Lori – My Life Interrupted
Lisa – Use Your Wisdom
Cate – Nature’s Child
Lisa – Crazy Adventures in Parenting
Jen – The Story of Us
I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s posts and thoughts. Thanks for initiating a great project.
I am glad that you are making the choice in believing…for yourself and your childrens benefit.
Thank you for starting this wonderful project. I am looking forward to reading everyone’s posts. Sci-fi Dad commented on my post with a link to a song that uses the campaignes theme words “I am not beautiful like you, I am beautiful like me.” It is a great song!
This is wonderful!
Sprite inherited her father’s brown eyes and my own nose which are nice. But I am always criticizing my own weight and body image, and I know I need to stop this so Sprite doesn’t pick up on it. I just don’t want her thinking the same things although I know exposure in school will do it anyway.
Wow, my post about it has got to be 2348937429384 words LOL I’m a big mouth when it comes to this stuff!
http://www.crazyadventuresinparenting.com/2009/04/beautiful-like-me-self-image-week-1.html
I’m so excited about this project!
Excellent project. I enjoyed writing today.
One particular thing you said in this post really jumped out at me. “It is important to also respect ourselves.” Yes! Like the chicken and the egg analogy, it is hard to know what comes first, respecting ourselves or a positive self-image. They are closely related. No matter which may come before the other, they are definitely dually important.
Great choice! It has been really great reading posts today!
This is such a great idea. I was talking to my husband the other day about my self esteem issues and my poor body image. I told him that I need to get my issues in check before my kids are old enough to have their own. I think it’s important for both my son and my daughter to be confident and happy with who they are.
I think how we view ourselves definitely affects our little ones. My mom struggled with her weight all while I was growing up (just as most women typically do). But she was proud of herself and always treated her body with respect and kept a postive attitude. I like to think that she passed that on to me.
I love that you’re doing this. This is awesome.
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What a cool idea! I’m going to try to do this, I agree that it’s so important. I’m like many others who have commented here about needing to remember what not to say around the Princess Nagger so she doesn’t have body image issues when she gets older…thanks for doing this!
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