Too Much, Too Soon

I started writing this blog nearly four months ago. It's hard to believe that time has passed so quickly. I write about what interests me most in terms of my lifestyle and knowledge, but I hit a brick wall yesterday after watching 'Oprah'. The show highlighted two young mothers and a teenage model who had developed symptoms of either an eating disorder and/or distored images of themselves. It was painful to watch the video of the three-year old child belittle her own mother for not allowing her to wear make-up because she thought she was ugly without it. It was even more painful to watch the video of the four-year old tell her mother she only wanted fruit because anything else would make her fat. The teenager, who was a beautiful model, couldn't even look at herself in the mirror because she thought she was so hideous to look at. These young girls were receiving messages from their own mothers, even verbally or otherwise, that because they (the moms) didn't feel good enough about themselves, then neither did their daughters. It made me wonder how my own daughter felt about herself, since she was watching the show with me. I was surprised to hear that she didn't think she was pretty at all, but in fact, I've always told her the opposite. I realized that maybe how I view myself culminated in her own poor self image. Ironic, given the topic of many of my blog posts.