Katie Reed, the mommy blogger behind It'sA Mother Thing, responded to her 5-year-old son calling her fat by conducting a bizarre experiment about perception and Photoshop. Reed says it all began when she was putting her five-year-old son to bed, and he told her, "Mommy you look like you’re having a BABY! Don’t worry. It’s just ’cause your belly is so FAT!”
While she knows she's put on weight for normal reasons (having three kids in four years and a lack of energy due to health problems), the words still stung. In addition to ensuring she's comfortable in her own skin, she wanted to make sure she raises three sons who appreciate all women for who they are (and that don't call people fat when they put on a few pounds).
So she had her son help her pick out a new bikini. He insisted on a rainbow design, and she found one she liked. But the struggle continued when she was making her purchase at the register:
The young checkout girl rang us up, looked at me in wonder and said, 'How do you find the confidence to wear this? I could never let my flab hang out.'
I just kind of looked at her. I don’t think she meant to be mean, but I was definitely thrown. I realized pretty quickly that she was not insulting me, but rather sharing her own insecurity about her body.
After waging a personal war in her own head, she finally decided to wear the bikini in the backyard and play with her sons. Here's how Reed perceives herself:
When she looked at the pictures she had taken, she confronted reality:
Reed then used text to show the literal critical thoughts that swirl around her mind with a side-by-side comparison of perception and reality:
Reed acknowledges that she wants to lose some weight once she resolves the health issues that are causing her fatigue. But until then, she's gonna own that body:
But in the meantime, I want to celebrate my body for what it is NOW. It has done more than I ever thought it could. It has seen me through 34 years, three kids and two marriages.
Ladies, I GREW HUMANS! From SCRATCH!
Thinking of one's body in terms of lifetime achievements and endurance is a healthy way of accepting weight gain. And the positive attitude will certainly help with any physical or mental challenges she faces in the future.