So today was my baby’s first swimming lesson. It was awesome, he was fantastic and the staff at Northern Arena @ Silverdale absolutely rocked
but…
as I was getting the mountain of stuff ready to get myself and the boy there, my thoughts weren’t of ‘yay, can’t wait to see my baby swim’; but ‘oh s*&t, I have to get my body out!’ I spent longer than could safely be called sane trying different combos of swim wear, assessing which would suck me in to an acceptable standard, criticising every aspect of my body in the poorly lit bathroom.
Guess what, when I got there…
nobody gave a crap!
If I were among parents who had done the exact same thing or if they were amazingly body confident, you wouldn’t have known. Every parent there was so wrapped up in the joy of seeing their tiny creations splashing and laughing, that their body hang ups disappeared. Just as it should! For that hour, I completely forgot that every day I poke at my belly, squash my hips and weigh myself!
As I sat down to write this, I did a quick google to find the quotes about our stretch marks being a sign of our amazing journey into motherhood, and our bodies being the safe 1st home of our precious tiny ones. I saw the same picture of a woman with impeccably flat abs, a few stretch marks and a really positive body image quote right next to the same image with an advert for stretch mark removal and weight loss plastered across it! So many contradictions across just 2 images!
Recently my niece was part of 100 girls asked to share their insecurities. At least 90% of these centred around being ‘too fat’/’too skinny’. As women growing up completely surrounded by negative and conflicting media messages, how are we supposed to feel confident amid such a huge changes during pregnancy and motherhood.
All the positive self image quotes in the world will do no good until you really believe in yourself and their message. No way am I cured of my body hang ups. I know I will still be on the scales tomorrow, picking my body apart. But I will try to remind myself of what my body has done for me and I will listen to my husband who tells me I’m beautiful.
Eventually, the positive will start to chip away at the negative and I will start believing in those messages.
Maybe every day will be like that hour at the pool!
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