- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- moms today articles
- moms today q&a
- community & groups
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
From Our Sponsors
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
Modeling Positive Body Image to Your Children By Lyn Mettler
"Parents should take an honest look at their own relationship with their body, such as their own satisfaction level, shame and how much cultural expectations and media have affected their views," advises Eileen Padham, an adolescent body image therapist at Remuda Ranch programs for anorexia and bulimia in Wickenburg, Ariz.
"If a parent is proud of their body, no matter what their size, they send a strong message: I'm OK, you're OK. On the other hand, a parent like mine that was uncomfortable in her skin passes that same phobia on to their child," says Vilas. "It has taken more than four decades to realize I am a perfect me, not a perfect somebody else, and that is more than enough."
Be a ModelGuess what? Your children, even toddlers, are paying attention. "Young kids, especially before puberty, tend to model their parents, especially their same-sex parent," says Salvatore Cullari, professor and chair of the psychology department at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa.
So alcoholic parents tend to produce alcoholic children, and smokers tend to produce smokers. So why not model good habits instead of bad ones? One of the most important things you can do as a parent is to model the behavior you want your children to imitate.
"Children learn more by action than words," says Padham. "Because the child is impressionable, and the parents are the most consistent influence in the young child's life, they can affect how the child views what her body can do, how the child speaks about her body and other bodies and especially, how the child deals with change."