Michelle Obama is leading a campaign to combat childhood obesity, which has tripled over the past 30 years. As someone who has been writing about personal issues for much of my career, I'm on the fence when it comes to critics who say the First Lady went too far by sharing information about her own children and the hot health topic. Hear me out...
During the kickoff of her initiative, Mrs. Obama admitted that her daughters' pediatrician once told her that the first children, Malia and Sasha, were teetering near "overweight." This offended many critics and forced them to make comments about how Mrs. Obama's words would become the tipping point for future eating disorders. Eeeep. I somewhat disagree. I'm not saying discussing weight with young girls, teens, even women is ever easy, but I don't think encouraging healthful eating and exercise is a ding, ding, ding, cue to anorexic tendencies. Maybe American kids are overweight because mom and dad aren't talking about well, being overweight. It's touchy, I KNOW.
My thoughts are the First Lady was trying to resonate with the American public. She's married to the most powerful man in the world, and she was trying to remove herself from the soapbox and say, "Hey, I'm not just trying to make your kids healthy; I'm trying to make mine healthy too." And as a parent I respect that. No one likes to be told how to parent or what to do, but I find comfort in other mothers who share personal experiences with me, because it helps me feel less like a screw-up. Seriously.
For example, JD is 21/2, and at night he goes to sleep with his pacifier. The horror! Our pediatrician raised an eyebrow to that, and it made me feel really, really, really bad. I shared this with some of my mom friends, and guess what: Their kids, who are around JD's age, still use a pacifier (or a ginky, as JD calls it). The fact that JD uses it only at night is actually huge progress, since he used to ask for it 24/7 and walk around the house with it in his mouth while he played. I weaned him from that, and one day I will wean him from using it at night.
Parents have a tendency to over-share. Hello, look at all the mommy blogs and essays in parenting magazines and on websites. Check out this babble.com first-person essay titled: The Chubbiest Baby On The Block. On the most recent episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Chris warned her teenage aspiring-model daughter, Kendall, not to eat "all those cookies." The First Lady was just following the general public's suit when she spoke LIKE A MOM and not the designer-clad wife to the President of the United States of America. Even the parents who live on Pennsylvania Avenue have to deal with real-life issues like getting their kids to eat spinach and exercise. They also have to lead our country. Give 'em a break, I say!
What do you say?
SOURCE: Glamour
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