Body image issues don't discriminate. Women, men, and people of all other genders are likely to say or think something negative about their bodies at some point — and some of us have these thoughts every day. It's normal, but it can still be damaging to our mental health.
While it's true that many things contribute to this collective negative body image, part of the problem (especially for women) is a cycle of negative self-talk we hear all the time. Some of our body issues can even stem from the way our mothers talked about their bodies.
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That's the lesson one mom just learned after a talk with her young son. A woman named Kristy posted to the Breastfeeding Mama Talk Facebook page about a moment that made her "feel like the worst mom ever."
"Even when I was at my skinniest I found things wrong about myself and when I look back at old photos I feel like going to my past self and shaking her and yelling, "Are you blind! Look at yourself you're gorgeous!" she wrote. "I never want my son to have that insecurity."
But she learned that seeds of insecurity have already set up in his mind.
"Well tonight he was looking in a mirror and said, 'I'm ugly,'" she wrote. "I told him he wasn't and his dad said , 'You are handsome you [look] like me.' my son smiles. Then I told him, 'And you look like me a little too.' and then he frowns and almost cries and says, 'What ?! That means I am ugly then because mommy says she's ugly , if I look like mommy that means I'm ugly too!'"
His words broke her heart, she wrote, and made her realize how much the way she talked about herself affected her son. "My son taught me a very valuable lesson last night," she wrote. "How dare I be the person that instills any insecurity into my kid when I'm supposed to be the one to protect him from that!"
We understand how Kristy is feeling. It has to be shocking to hear your child echo the negative words you say without a thought. But it definitely doesn't make her the worst mom ever. Her son might hear negative things about his body and other people's bodies as he grows up, but we're glad at the thought that Kristy can combat some of that negativity at home.