Mom Shares Beautiful Advice for All Parents Raising Daughters
Oh, dear women — is there anyone harder on us than ourselves? Isn’t it true that we judge our own appearances by much stricter standards than we judge others’?
In fact, many of us don’t tend to judge others at all. We don’t see their imperfections or flaws. Their crooked teeth or muffin top or wrinkles.
But we see our own. Through a magnifying glass. We diet and body shame and talk about pre-baby weight. We tell our daughters we once looked like them, and oh, that was the life!
But what happens when our daughters become us? What happens when they grow into moms, when their bodies change to support the growing life inside of them?
They’ve learned from the best, of course. And if they lived those formidable years of child and young adulthood hearing us complain about our appearances, how can we expect their view of themselves to be any different?
One mom wrote an essay in an effort to change how we talk to our daughters about their bodies. Sarah Koppelkam originally shared the article as a HuffPost contributor in 2013.
But her words are just as relevant today as they were then. “How to talk to your daughter about her body,” the post begins.
“Step one: Don’t talk to your daughter about her body, except to teach her how it works. Don’t say anything if she’s lost weight. Don’t say anything if she’s gained weight.”
Line after line, paragraph after paragraph, Koppelkam encourages moms to focus on the beauty within and kindness toward ourselves.
“Don’t you dare talk about how much you hate your body in front of your daughter,” she writes, “or talk about your new diet.”
Koppelkam goes on to share about teaching our daughters to eat healthy, to cook healthy, but also “Teach your daughter how to bake chocolate cake made with six sticks of butter.”
The post is both inspiring and a game changer for any woman who can relate. But the best part of this story by far is Koppelkam’s line at the end:
“Remind your daughter that the best thing she can do with her body is to use it to mobilize her beautiful soul.”
Is there any question as to why this post went viral and has continued to be shared across social media by mothers and daughters alike?
Do these words resonate with you? They certainly hit home for this mama bear. It might be time for a change in perspective. Because we all have beautiful souls — souls that deserve to be loved.
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