My mom has taught me a lot about life and love and sorrow and struggle. She’s my number one role model, and she is a fantastic mother. She’s someone who strives to be the best in every capacity she fills. Something I’ve been reflecting on as I prepare to give birth again is my relationship with my body, and it isn’t hard to see that the root of my feelings about my body come back to my mom.
I feel like I have a healthy body image. I trust my body. I do my best to take care of it. I know that it’s strong and powerful and a miraculous gift. And the reason I feel so positively about my body and empowered to do hard things physically is because of the way my mom talked to me about bodies and the way that she treated her own body as well. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I realized how rare it is to have such overwhelmingly positive feelings about my body.
My mom is strong, and when I think back on my childhood, that is easy to recognize. She used to rollerblade, pushing a stroller, to drop Hailey and me off at school. Now she has a physically intense job as a birth assistant where she uses all her muscle groups to help women give birth. She’s always talked about exercise positively, and I never heard her speak negatively about anyone’s body, including her own. She never called me skinny or chubby. When we talked about bodies, she would talk about being healthy and feeling strong.
We didn’t talk about or focus on sizes or weight in my house growing up. I don’t think it was something I ever even thought about. Even when my mom was working hard to lose weight after having babies, it wasn’t about getting down to a certain size or weight. It was about feeling comfortable in her clothes that she had worn before pregnancy and feeling strong and healthy rather than skinny. I’m grateful that that was the focus because even now I don’t worry about my weight or my size as long as I feel strong and healthy.
I also appreciate that my parents taught me about food. My mom taught me to cook. She always provided fruit and vegetables, and she explained the way metabolism works. I still vividly remember her describing the importance of breakfast in pulling your body out of starvation mode and starting your day off well. It’s something that made a huge difference in my college experience because I knew that it was important to eat before class. She talked to us about portion control. She also made and ate cookies with us. She wasn’t starving herself or only eating kale.
My mom wasn’t critical about what I chose to put into my body either. She would ask me sometimes if I had eaten anything with any nutritional value that day, but she didn’t make me feel guilty if I had three helpings of dinner or if I snitched a cookie out of the freezer. The lack of shame that I feel about food and my body is a gift that my parents gave me, and it’s one that I am super grateful as an adult.
I remember when my mom explained menstruation to me. She used words like miraculous, strong, and powerful. I learned that my body is a gift and that it is capable of incredible feats. It was a similar experience whenever my parents would teach my siblings and me about childbirth. I never had fear about those physical experiences. I actually was excited to give birth even as a teenager because my mom talked about what a spiritual experience it was and how empowering it could be to realize that you could accomplish anything.
My mom has taught me more than any other human on this Earth (with my dad’s help), and I am so grateful that she is the example of womanhood that I have continually seen. I hope I can be a strong role model for my children and teach them about the beauty and power of our bodies.
No comments:
Post a Comment