babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
In a recent interview with Ladies Home Journal, Michelle Obama said that she never talks about weight — hers or theirs — with her daughters, Sasha, nine, and Malia, 12.
“Well, I never talk about weight with my girls. I try not to even talk about my weight. Because you’re right, it is a sensitive issue. My girls are preteens and they’re seeing their bodies in a whole different way. We have conversations around health, food, and activity. I tell them sports are something I want them to engage in because it’s good for them. It’s good to practice teamwork, to understand what it means to suffer a loss, to win with grace. It has nothing to do with weight, it has everything to do with being a well-rounded person.”
Her comments are refreshing turnaround from those she and President Obama made earlier this year during the launch of her Let’s Move campaign. Then, President Obama was remembering when Malia was getting “a little chubby” and Michelle Obama talked about changes in her family’s eating habits after their pediatrician suggested the girls’ were gaining too much weight. Both the President and the First Lady caught a lot of flack for being so openly honest about their girls’ bodies.
Unlike the First Dad, Michelle Obama seems to be a little more sensitive about what it means to be a girl growing up in America today, where you can’t even be a four-year-old in a pair of swimming trunks without the entire country going into cardiac arrest.
Like Obama, I’ve never discussed weight as something that can be good or bad with my girls either. They’ve never heard me call myself fat or disparage any part of my body. I’ve even cheerfully tried on swim suits with them watching on (even if inside I was vowing to do 1,000 situps a day from that moment on.) We have frequent conversations about healthy choices, about staying active, and about how taking care of our bodies is a form of self-loving. But we also talk, too, about how people’s bodies are just different — size included.
Avoiding body image issues in today’s America isn’t easy for pre-teen and teen girls, but my hope is that by de-emphasizing it at home, we can help our girls build enough confidence to fend off those unhealthy messages as they get older.
Do you discuss weight with your kids?
Photo: Alex Johnson, Flickr
More:
5 Websites to Ban from the Family Computer
10 Things Parents Can Do to Build Reading Readiness
Older, Overweight Moms at Risk of Breastfeeding Difficulties
Glenn Beck received harsh criticism from his own fans for attacking Malia Obama in his radio show after she asked her dad “Did you plug the hole yet?” in reference to the BP oil spill. — Huffington Post
A friend of mine was offended when her OB referred to her as an “elderly gravida,” but age 35 has always been the cut-off for “advanced maternal age.” But as Dr. Jason Rothbart points out, with today’s technology, all pregnant women need to have the option to test if they want peace of mind. — Parents Ask
Your toddler is two and still using a pacifier. Sure, your mother-in-law says it’s time to give it up, but is it really? LilSugar has a great slide show giving guidance on when it’s time to move on from certain milestones.
The mom of the smoking toddler from Indonesia says that she wants to help her son. She brought him to Jakarta for advice, where she was told to redirect him when he wants a cigarette, but she says that smoking is so pervasive in her country that it’s hard for him to quit. — CNN
Avocados are a favorite baby’s first food, but toddlers and older kids love their sweet creaminess, too. Here are several ways to enjoy this healthy treat with kids. — Eco Child’s Play
Photo: David Shankbone, Flickr
‘The girls don’t watch TV during the week. Period.” So goes an executive order from our Commander in Chief that he is not likely to rescind any time soon.
The Obamas have a nightly ritual like any other family. Sasha (8) and Malia (11) dive into their schoolwork after school until dinner–any remaining studying is attended to afterward. But if the work is done? No American Idol, ditto iCarly, and you can forget Drake & Josh. The TV stays dark. It’s time to pick up a book…a practice that began when their parents read to them nightly when they were tots. Bedtime is a strict 8:30 for Sasha and 9 for big sis Malia.
Education and personal responsibility are clearly priorities in the White House. The girls are awakened by alarm clocks, make their beds and get themselves dressed every morning. In the Obamas’ no-nonsense style of parenting, their daughters are responsible for getting themselves to school on time.
These are rules that the Obamas feel all parents can easily enforce, regardless of their economic situation.
“There’s no doubt that Michelle and I have more resources and privileges compared with a lot of parents. We understand that,” the President said in an interview appearing in Esquire’s March issue. “But I don’t care how poor you are — you can turn off the television set during the week.”
Methinks that the Obamas are onto something. What say you? Are the First Parents on target or have they gone too far?
Image: Dailyradar
Michelle Obama just became one brave mama with her announcement that her pediatrician had to give her a heads up on her girls’ potential for a weight problem.
But did her attempt to personalize the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic unintentionally send a bad message? Continue reading »
The emergence of the Swine Flu and the resulting vaccine has sent conspiracy theorists into overdrive. One doesn’t have to look very hard to find fringe groups who sincerely believe that the H1N1 virus is a “bioterrorism attack by the New World Order” and that the vaccine itself is a “eugenics weapon” aimed at reducing the world’s population. As evidence of their theories, they point to the fact that President Obama refuses to have his own children vaccinated against the virus.
Those conspiracy theorists will now have to look elsewhere for their proof as the White House has announced that Sasha and Malia Obama received the H1N1 vaccine last week.
While that should shut the conspiracy theorists up for a while, something tells me it won’t. The same article on the White House Blog confirms that while the First Daughters were vaccinated against H1N1, the President and his wife were not. They received only the seasonal flu vaccine. Of course, the President and First Lady are not in the priority groups for the vaccine as identified the by CDC – those under the age of 24, pregnant women and people with underlying conditions. But a good conspiracy theorist never lets the facts get in the way.
Image: sxc.hu
A Florida girl is now the poster child for an effort to get more nutritious lunches in the nation’s schools. The face of Jasmine Messiah, 8, will appear in posters all over D.C. as a part of the Healthy School Lunches campaign’s effort to lobby Congress.
In the poster, a dialogue bubble asks why the Miami-Dade County, Florida, girl doesn’t get healthy lunches like the First Daughters do. In fact, Jasmine is a vegetarian, but there are not vegetarian options in her school cafeteria.
The Obama girls get vegetarian options — and more. Why, Jasmine wants to know. Why? Continue reading »
Sasha and Malia paid a visit to their mom and dad. But not the Obamas made of flesh and blood, nope this parental unit was made of pure wax. This duo doesn’t live at the White House but rather at Madame Tussaud’s Washington D.C. outpost.
According to an AP report, the two girls giggled at the site of the replicas of their parents and thought is would be “hilarious” if they took photos with the pair. There’s no word if they opted to do so or not. But they didn’t just go there to visit mom and dad. During their visit they also checked out – and took photos of – Continue reading »
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
0