Ten Tips for Raising Kids with a Healthy Body Image
 By
Maureen Kelly, Director of Education & Training, Planned Parenthood
of Tompkins County
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and
not necessarily those of Advocates for Youth.
- Teach your kids that their body size and weight is
but one part of who they are.
- Speak up! Share your thoughts and ask your kids' opinions
about how bodies are depicted in the media. Engage
in dialog by asking questions like, "Does that look real?" "Do
a lot of people really look like that?" "What do
you think might have been done to that picture
to make
it look that way?"
- Watch what you say! Do you put yourself down? Do you
criticize your own body? If you do, stop it! There
is no value at all to hating your body. Equally important,
when you put down your own body in front of your
kids, you are giving them a clear message that it's okay not
to like yourself.
- Teach your kids about health, weight, nutrition, and
exercise! When you do, make sure that you share
the facts, not myths, and talk about health not social expectations!
Let your kids know that body size alone is NOT
an indicator
of health! People with big bodies may be healthy
and people with thin bodies may not.
- Look around! What kinds of magazines do your have in
your home? Do you buy diet products? Ask yourself
if the images and products you have readily available in
your home match your commitment to body acceptance
and diversity and to raising a child with a healthy body
image? Make sure that your home is place that communicates
alignment with what you believe and say.
- Educate yourself about the myths and facts about body
shapes and sizes. Our society does not provide
balanced messages about health, nutrition, and body diversity;
however, there are people, organizations, and books
that do. Find them. Read them and tell your kids what you
learned.
- Don't lie or sugarcoat anything! It's a harsh world
out there regarding anyone's relationship to his
or her body. Acknowledge that it can be hard to love your body
while also explaining how important it is to love
your body. Follow up by helping to create an action plan to
fight the limited, narrow images of beauty that
hurt everyone.
- Teach your child skills for dealing with the American
obsession with size and weight. Teach your child
critical thinking skills. Ask your child's school to incorporate
media literacy programs into their curricula. Teach
your kids to use their voices early and often, whenever they
see oppression, intolerance or prejudice.
- Teach your kids about injustice. Tell them that many
groups of people suffer discrimination and prejudice,
including people whose bodies don't match the cultural
ideal of beauty. Then teach them what they can
do to help stop it!
- Never, ever, ever say anything that supports narrow
concepts of beauty or health or that is discriminatory
based on body appearance. Expressions like, "But I'm sure
she's pretty on the inside," undercut everything
you are trying to teach your kids.
Recommended Resources
Maureen Kelly's book Body Advocacy will be out soon!
Planned Parenthood of Tompkins County sells a great pamphlet aimed at kids
in late elementary school entitled Body Image: How Do You Feel about Your
Body?
To purchase the two publications listed above, contact Maureen Kelly via phone
at (607) 273-1526.
Click here to return to the Parents'
Sex Ed Center home page.
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