Blog 3 Women's Body Image

 

Have you ever known someone with a mental illness? How did/does the illness impact his/her life? What have you learned about this mental illness just from knowing them?

I have been a nanny for almost 10 years. I have seen variety of parenting skills which I agree with and those that I do not. Almost a year ago, I was a nanny to four children, two boys and two girls. Their ages were two, seven, nine and twelve. Their mother was a very thin woman. She was about five foot seven and couldn’t have weighted more than 110lbs with size about two. Their mother did emphasize on healthy eating and weight control. She only wanted the children to eat organic fruits and vegetables with no sugar snacks. Her children, however, expressed to me that their mother would feed them fast food often. Those actions revealed to me an outward appearance to others rather than actually fallow through with her ideas. I believe she was only concerned with her own body image and not her children.  In this woman’s life, food was a control factor rather than a good habit to teach her children.

  One of the girls was age seven and the other was few months away from turning twelve years old. The seven years old took the genes of her mother with very slim body type. The twelve years old on the other hand, had a much thicker body type. According to body type, weight, height and age, neither of the girls was overweight or "fat." Once again, the two girls emphasized different concern of their body image. The mother and her twelve years old daughter don’t have any sort of relationship established. The matter in effect, they pretty much disliked one another. As a mother, an adult authority and role model, she should encourage self-satisfactions and self-image in her young daughters. Except, this mother did just the opposite by calling out her daughters imperfections to her ideals.

The twelve years old, was a very active in sports and especially in the summer camps.  I brought up a question to this young girl about her insistence of wearing pants to her sports activities? Her answer was shocking because she told me that her mother said that her legs are fat. Why? Why? Would you tell your child such harsh statement? Even if the child argues with their parent, their parent is still someone they look to as a role model. This twelve years old is five foot four and weighted only 67lbs.

 Now, the seven years old was very tiny. She was about five foot and weighted 47lbs. According to her though, after any meal she would say that she is “fat” because her little belly would naturally peeked out a little from food intake. 

Both instances indicate the importance of family influence on the way a woman feels about food and her body.  These two girls are example of the importance one’s family has on their lives.  Healthy body image should be a daily encouragement in young’s woman life.