Have I just ruined my daughter's self-confidence with one simple question?
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Being the mum of a girl is hard work. Seriously, I feel like I was lured into a false sense of security when I found out I was having a daughter and someone told me: "ah, girls are easy."
I’m pretty sure whoever said it only had boys.
Motherhood is a rollercoaster of emotions and there seem to be so many rights and wrongs that it gets confusing - even more so with daughters when you're their main female role model.
I often find myself tripping up over my conflicting opinions and feelings, and my latest stumble is a pretty big one. I let my guard down and it has only just hit me now – like a brick wall.
My daughter is definitely Little Miss Sporty, and I have always made sure that exercise and playing sport was about having fun and being healthy. And while I consciously make an effort not to associate it with dieting or body image, I think I may have ruined all my hard work with one simple question - “how do I look?”
The thing is, I love getting her opinion on outfits; she is as honest as the day is long and I really appreciate her views. But by asking her if I look ok, have I caused her to question how she looks?
We recently posted the video of a little girl who wanted to wear make-up to be pretty like her mum, who also said she wanted to make her face look skinny.
While many people were divided on the fact that the youngster shouldn’t be thinking about make-up at this age already, it highlights the influence we, as mums, have on our child's view of themselves.
It is so important we instil a healthy body image in our children, and while most of us try our best to ensure our youngsters grow up ready to take on the world, including giving them the ability to ignore any knock backs and shallow people, we all make mistakes from time to time, don’t we?
I’m just hoping it’s not too late to rectify my mistake.
Mary Byrne is a staff writer at MummyPages and mum to a horse-crazy, sports-mad, seven-year-old girl.
