Mommy, you’re so skinny

My five year old told me that I looked pregnant yesterday.

I said, “NO!” and inside I felt like crying, because of all of my struggles with weight loss – or better put, my lack of weight loss.  Outside I laughed and told him he was being silly. He was really cute.

About an hour later we were getting ready for bed and I told my husband that Andreas had told me that I looked pregnant. We shared a laugh.

Andreas then proceeded to touch my belly, rub it up and down and say, “Mommy you’re so skinny!”

I couldn’t help myself. I burst out laughing. It was so funny and very unexpected.  He then said it over and over again for about 10 minutes along with great big giggles. I have to admit it did wonders for my mood. But a part of me started to worry a little bit.

We don’t use the words skinny or fat in this house. I do my best at keeping my weight issues between my adult friends and I. I never discuss them around my kids. This I can guarantee. My weight issues have no place in my children’s lives.

I worry, because I don’t keep my son in a bubble, that all I’ve been doing at home to protect him from the ‘baddies’ is all out the window now that he’s nearing grade one. He’s exposed to kids from different families who have different values and views on things. He’s exposed to kids who say things like “you’re stupid”, “I hate you” and my personal favourite  “you’re a booger”.

These are words that are not used around the kids in our house (booger is ok but only in the right context). They are only uttered when Nick or I are coming down the stairs after 8pm:

“That freaking booger kid of yours took me ages to put to bed. It’s so stupid that it took an hour to get them to sleep. I hate our bedtime routine.” HA!

Even though this exposure worries me, I’m glad that my kids can experience it. Diversity is important and exposure will only help them decide who they want to be in life. Hopefully all of the effort put into keeping things ‘clean’ around here will lead to well-rounded kids who are strong and confident enough to be respectful, not follow the pack, make their own decisions, form their own opinions and stand by them.

Fingers crossed.