When Choice Isn’t A Choice

Long before I knew the term “disordered eating,” I knew its environment. My stunningly beautiful mother maintained her perfectly-proportioned, svelte figure with Carnation Instant Breakfast, cigarettes for hunger control during the day and an enormous, home-cooked, delicious meat, potatoes, salad and vegetable dinner every night. Sweets and sugar were forbidden, but sour cream was encouraged—low-fat, of course. I was skinny, my sister was husky and food and weight were frequent topics of discussion.  As an adult, I recognized this wasn’t healthy. Purposeful Parenting Because I lacked modeling to be the type of parent I wanted to be, I looked around for examples and read many books. One of the very conscious choices I made in parenting was to foster a positive relationship with food and promote a positive body image. You know those ubiquitous “How to Prevent Your Child from Getting an Eating Disorder” pieces? I did it all. For Good Measure As a feminist, raising my children also entailed instruction in media literacy and exposure to critical thinking about sex roles and societal expectations. Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll is one of my must-reads and I shared it with all my children. But What Was It Really Like? My youngest child is 19; childhood is behind them. They agree that they had golden childhoods and that their parents, while not perfect, did a good job of hitting the sweet spot of authoritarian (versus permissive or authoritative) parenting. It’s a source...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - Category: Pediatricians Authors: Tags: Perspectives Eating Behavior Eating Disorders Raising Girls Teen Girls Teens & Behavior Teens & Health Source Type: blogs