How Mothers Can Help Daughters with Body Image
A mother’s willingness to look at and work on her own food and body issues goes along way to help her daugher. You don’t have to be perfect! In fact, it would be surprising if living in our culture, you haven’t had any struggles of your own. Telling your daughter that weight and appearance aren’t important comes across as ingenuous if your actions speak otherwise. Demonstrating a willingness to look at your own body and food stuff can go a long way in helping your daughter do the same.
In an interview with People magazine, Katherine Schwarzenagger says that talking to her mom in this way helped her with struggles around weight and body image. I don’t know the extent of Maria Shriver’s own history with eating and weight issues but she has certainly lived her life in the spotlight and experienced the pressures related to that. She has also been an advocate for increasing young girls’ self esteem and preventing eating disorders. It sounds like an open dialogue around these issues has benefited her dauger. Katherine’s book, ‘Rock What You’ve Got: Secrets of Loving Your Inner and Outer Beauty from Someone Who’s Been There and Back’, may be a good resource for adolescent girls. It’s on my list of reads and I’m interested to hear reviews from anyone who’s read it.
Katherine talks about her book on Good Morning America. See the clip.
