Reply to Overweight kids - how to help my child understand that fine line between bullying and the truth

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow. You sound toxic.

How about encourage him to eat healthy food and stay active so that his body is healthy and strong. Leave everyone else out of it. He shouldn't comment on other people's appearance at all. [/quote]

This. Weight shouldn't be a topic of discussion at all, just healthy foods and lots of activity. [/quote]

Fine and well enough, but...

If you've never had your child use the word "fat", then you clearly haven't read them "one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" or a whole host of other books that teach basic English language adjectives.

I don't talk to my kids about weight -- I'm lucky in that we don't need to have that discussion in our house.  We're blessed with good genes, and so we talk about exercise and staying healthy.  They DO bring this stuff home from school though.  They are teaching it in school -- health and P.E.  My 7 year old (who is slim) came home and started talking to me about "calories" and "obesity".  I told him not to worry about calories -- just try to make sure he eats the right kind.

But kids are curious and they are quick to notice things that are visually different.  If my 5 or 6 year old points to some really huge person at an airport, and says, "Mommy, that person is obese".  I'd say "Yes, you're correct.  That is not healthy.  But don't point, please -- we don't want to comment on people's appearances."  And I'd leave it at that.

But I'll tell you honestly -- I see many people who treat the words "fat" or "obese" like curse words.  They're not.  They're words in the English language to describe people or animals.  For young kids, often the explanation isn't perfect at first -- but I want them to know what these words mean, and to be able to use them appropriately without being shamed by me.[/quote]

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