So, I was thinking about cutting out pictures of women from Shape magazine or Fitness magazine and putting them on the fridge and sort of inspiration. However, I don't want my daughter to grow up remembering that mommy had pictures of skinny women on the fridge and that's how she should want to look. I don't know what I think about this. I have always had a bad body image and I really don't want her to have one so I try to be sensitive to these kinds of issues. Any advice??
Since you have young child(ren) in the house, I would advise against putting up pictures like that on your fridge, for the body image issues that could cause.
If you really want inspiration pictures on the fridge, do you have any pictures of a younger, smaller you that you could put up instead? Or even other relatives/friends? I don't think having pictures of younger you or other people you know up on the fridge would cause the same body image issues in your children as having pictures of skinny strangers on the fridge would.
If you feel your daughter is old enough to have a conversation about how it's not about getting skinny, it's about getting healthy and strong so you can play harder, be healthier and be around for her as long as you can, I don't see anything wrong with it.
I would mix in pictures of healthy food and exercises so it's not all about the bodies and more about the journey.
I would be careful even mentioning dieting in her presence. The way you lose weight can effect your child's body image as well. If you focus so much on how other people are skinny or the need to BE skinny, your child will pick up on that and copy it.
On my laptop I have a folder containing images of people running, lifting weights, doing yoga etc. It's something I can view whenever I use my laptop (the pics will run as a slide show).
Or you can could create a scrapbook for yourself with the images that you had planned to put on the fridge.
If you decide you really want the pictures on the fridge perhaps you can choose pictures of people participating in some sort of activity, especially something that you take part in. That way your daughter can, perhaps, think of images as women being active rather than "skinny women".
thanks for all the input. I guess I kinda knew it was a bad idea when I had to think twice about it. What I might do instead is put pictures of Disney World up there since I am trying to lose all me weight before then.
Yeah I like the disney world picture idea better. Then she doesn't have to know about the struggle, and she won't feel the need to emulate you in a bad way.
thanks guys the last thing I want is to have my daughter think that she's not perfect just the way she is! She knows about "healthy foods" but not anything about "diets" and I would prefer to keep it that way as long as possible.
I haven't used it, but many women on here use a virtual visualization board called, pinterest. That would be a great place for you to put up images of people (althletes, models, celebrities) you would like to model yourself after, and your kids don't have to see it or be confused by it. I have thought about doing that myself, but I don't want to spend any more time online than I already do!
Bad body image??
the last thing I want is to have my daughter think that she's not perfect just the way she is! She knows about "healthy foods" but not anything about "diets" and I would prefer to keep it that way as long as possible.
