Dear Parents, Stop Criticizing your Children’s Weight
Trigger Warning: Talk of body image, appearance, and eating disorder(s)
When I was little, I remember going to fast food chains with my mom after school while ordering the same food every single day. Whenever I’d visit my grandparents, they ensured I wouldn’t go home feeling hungry.
In return, the younger me was constantly praised for always eating to the point that I’d eat even when I felt full because it brought a smile to people’s faces.
While half of me is grateful that there are people that care about me, half of me wants to eat the food I want without feeling guilty about my weight because people think I’m getting fat.
And I know people would just say that I have the choice not to mind them, but how could I shrug them off when 90% of those opinions come from my own family that I live with?
Research in 2021 said that there were reports saying that 12% to 76% of adolescents have experienced parental comments regarding their weight and/or eating behaviors.
The constant comments about my weight made me insecure that I would unconsciously take a deep breath during picture takings to tuck in my stomach, or my hands would unconsciously touch my arms to make sure they aren’t getting bigger, as my family said.
This made me obsessed with trying to lose weight – chugging green teas, listening to subliminals on YouTube, or working out and wanting instant results like those clickbait YouTube videos (that became a trend during the start of the pandemic) have promised.
Den-den, a 19-year-old student and TikTok creator, posted a video about how her mom would tell her to stop eating so she wouldn’t gain any more weight, but afterward would buy her food to eat.
@fieandyxx and if i lose weight, she’ll make me eat again and asks me stop worrying so much about weight it’s giving me
ed
In an interview with her, she shared how the criticisms started when she was 13 years old, making her hate her body and think that she won’t ever feel good about herself at such a young age.
She has been doing strength training and feels confident about her body, but the criticisms about her weight never stopped. “There are a lot of comments that they [her family] say which totally changed my thoughts about my body. I’m confident with my body right now, but when they criticize me, it all crumbles down.” She stated.
“I followed routines that would give me results that people wanted to see on my body. Basically, once they comment on my body, I think of dieting or restricting myself from food.”
Other than this, she had developed body dysmorphia, where she tended to focus on her flaws and other people’s opinion(s) about her body.
It is not a secret that though the advancement of technology has been a huge help to most of us, it has also been the driver of insecurity within teenagers and/or young adults.
Chelsea Kronengold, a spokeswoman for the National Eating Disorders Association, said in an interview that social media does not cause an eating disorder but rather contributes to it where young people stumble upon certain posts that explicitly promote eating disorders.
The things seen on the internet have successfully brainwashed people of different age groups into thinking that skinny is the only way to be accepted in the real world.
For a while, the 10-second rule has circulated the social media in hopes of educating people about unnecessary comments on one’s appearance. The 10-second rule is a rule that says, “Do not point out something (usually a flaw) to a person if they cannot change it within 10 seconds.”
But at the end of the day, no matter how you see someone, it all boils down to how it is never kind to comment on one’s weight or give unsolicited advice/comments.
We’re already in the 21st century, give love and choose kindness.
The post <b> Dear Parents, Stop Criticizing your Children’s Weight </b> appeared first on WE THE PVBLIC.
Source: we the pvblic
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