How do you protect your kids from generational diet culture? Protecting against diet culture is THE hardest job as a mom.
This past weekend was fun. I got to hang out with 160 Moms and their kiddos – the 4-legged furry kind.
As I bumped along in our friend’s ranch truck, pulling a 6-horse stock trailer, I watched the momma cows lead their spring calves out to their summer home on the Zumwalt Prairie. The moms would nudge their calf with encouragement or moo in distress if their calf wasn’t by their side. That maternal instinct to nurture and protect can be so strong whether you’re walking around on 4 hooves or 2 feet.
While I’ve never been a Mom, and I made the decision long ago not to be one, I have so much compassion for the hard, hard work moms put into nurturing and protecting their kiddos every day – including trying to keep them free from weight stigma and discrimination.
Many of the women I’ve worked with over the years have stories of their moms being the first to introduce them to diet culture, sometimes taking them to weight loss support meetings or making sure the kids (my clients) didn’t have too many sweets or “junk food.”
In many cases, my client’s mom had suffered from weight discrimination or had their body objectified as social currency during their young adult years – and they’d be damned if their daughter had to put up with the same physical and emotional abuse.
This classic scenario often forces a mom’s maternal nurture-and-protect instinct to come out in their efforts to help their daughters (my clients) obey diet culture standards for health and beauty. And the Generational Diet Culture cycle of body shame continues.
I have so much empathy and compassion for any mom who thought (or still thinks) that supporting diet culture was the only way to keep their daughters safe. I share equal compassion with the daughters (now my clients) who endured weight loss meetings and limited or no access to sweets or fun foods with unconditional permission to enjoy them freely.
If you’re in a place of reckoning with your hand-me-down diet culture past or you’re a mom doing your damnedest to keep your kids free from food fear and body shame, I see you. My heart goes out to you. In my mind, this is the hardest part of being a mom.
Get started healing your relationship with food, ditching diet culture, and stopping the generational diet culture body shame cycle, download my free thrive guide.
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