body/image/food etc things you wish you'd known as a child?

Personally if I ever have kids, I want to make exercise a big thing....not force them to the gym ! But help them understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle in a fun way, for example joining sports clubs and having fun etc. !

But I think it's also important especially beginning of high school (this is where my healthy lifestyle went downhill majorly!)

Also FOOD healthy food for kids is important it drives me insane when I see a toddler in a push chair downing some soda ! eurghh

My mother and I are both pear shapes. Since I was a teenager and started developing curves she kept on telling me that my butt is big. She projected her pear shape complex onto me and made me hate my booty. I was at a healthy weight, so pointing out the size of my hips/butt was not necessary.
I am now a 29yo woman that still hates her curvy behind.

bump ...I want advice on this too!

This may sound stupid, but I remember being about 7 or 8 and my mom telling me that the only reason I was eating was so I could get boobs and have the boys look at me, and only bad girls want boys looking at their boobs. (You have to know that my mom was very old school, conservative-she also said sex should only be for procreation lol) So anyway, what she said really affected me to this day. I feel guilty if I eat and feel like I need to examine the reason why I am eating. Messed up, I know.

I can't say there's much I'd change, except maybe a couple little things. I remember my mom talking about how she thought she was fat and hated her body, always pointing out what she didn't like about it. In 8th grade, I sat down on the edge of my bed and my tummy rolled a little (it had never done this before) and I remember being horrified because I thought it meant I was fat.

I'm not sure how my body image would be different if my mom hadn't criticized her weight so much, but I suspect there would be some difference. I'm very critical about my own body even though I'm the smallest I've been since high school, maybe smaller.

As far as food goes, my mom made most things off limits and limited a lot of stuff, like dessert and soda. When I finally got a job in high school, I was able to buy whatever I wanted during lunch and I was a total glutton... I could finally have all the things I'd been denied! It got worse when I got to college and could eat whatever I wanted WHENever I wanted. And thus started an unhealthy relationship with food... I ate when I was sad, I ate when I was excited, I ate when I was stressed out. I used food as a comfort and as a reward. I packed on the pounds.

I wish I hadn't been denied those things so much because they became a novelty. The novelty wore off, of course, after a couple years of being able to eat whatever I wanted, but the damage was done. Food was no longer a novelty, now it was a coping mechanism. I have a friend whose mom always had soda and chips and stuff in the house and she could have them whenever she wanted. She barely ever ate them, and when she did she only ate a little bit. It wasn't a novelty for her, they were readily available.

Children learn A LOT from watching the adults around them so it's very important to set a good example. Keeping lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy snacks on hand and enjoying them yourself and with the kids will go a long way. Don't give them a lot of sugar, whether in sugary sodas, juices or snacks. No one needs to eat sugar, it should be reserved to have as an occasional treat.
Seeing your healthy active lifestyle will teach them it's normal and enjoyable to be active. Do fun playful activities together, even simply kicking a ball around the yard, playing frisbee or looking for butterflies during a walk at the park.
For me, I can say that I learned that sweets were a reward for good behavior. I wish I had learned that praise, love and maybe new crayons and paper were a reward for good behavior instead. I also somehow learned that eating would fill the void of boredom and bad feelings. I am still unlearning both of these behaviors. I think I learned them from observing my folks, but I'm not sure. They certainly could have done more to help me deal with those feelings in a more healthy way. There are probably many books available on the subject.
Good luck to you. I think you will be great as you obviously are a concerned loving parent.

A couple of these things have been mentioned, but this thread really resonated....
1. Food is fuel, not a reward.
2. Taking care of yourself, loving yourself, being proud of yourself are all good things. Your value does NOT come from how hard your work or what you produce.
3. Move for fun; enjoy life!
4. Take time to take care of yourself. Balance!

Parenting is so hard! (I don't have children.) Your children will benefit from your thoughtfulness and care!

I wish I'd been encouraged to go outside and take part in sports/activities. Most of my issues come from my mother who starves herself but is fat and hardly eats any healthy food. As a 19 year old, I weighed 8 stone (5ft 2) and she kept telling me the places I needed to lose weight.

I wish that my family hadn't seen food as a means of celebration or comfort or reward.

My mom's always made me feel good about myself, which is an awesome gift to give your daughter. I think the most "poisonous" things a mom can say to her daughter (or son) are any limiting comments..."You shouldn't run so hard in baseball with those breasts", "don't wear stripes as it will draw attention to your belly". Kids are cruel enough and will point out stuff like that - parents shouldn't be offenders, too.

I wish I had not been raised to expect a sweet ending to every meal. My mom is a dessert freak. There were times, growing up, we had dessert during breakfast! It's taken me over 30 years to stop planning my meals around a cookie or pie at the end, especially dinner...but even lunch.

I also wish I'd been more exposed to vegetables. As a kid, I thought veggies equaled iceberg lettuce, raw tomato, overcooked carrots, and canned peas, green beans & corn. NOTHING else. In my 20's I started to experiment with sauteed mushrooms, baby spinach, and adding onion to everything...changed my cooking & eating habits completely. I think I'd have been a healthier and happier kid and teenager if I'd eaten more veggies and viewed them as an integral part of dining rather than an occasional boring necessity.

I've always been thin, but have never cared for my pear-shaped proportions. My mother was also mentally abusive and picked on my looks, which didn't help, and my father was out of the picture most of the time and not supportive when he was.

I wish I had learned to sew so I could make flattering clothes that fitted my personality better. I've been learning later in life, but it's a very complex skill and my conditions are not ideal for sewing and tailoring.

Don't reward your kids with food. That's how my mom was raised - she has an eating disorder - and that is how she raised me. She feels tremendously guilty about it now but she didn't know.

Also, if you get up and are active, your kids will be too.

The fact that you even ask this question is awesome and I'm sure you a great parent.

My main goal with my child is to do the opposite of what mine did with me.

My mother was (undiagnosed, but I'm fairly sure) anorexic when I was growing up. I don't remember ever seeing her eat. She put me on my first diet when I was 5 because I was "too fat" (I wasn't) and would do things like take my brothers for ice cream, but tell me I couldn't have any because I was too fat. Or my favorite...giving away my easter basket every year because I was too fat. I had such body image issues for my entire life that at 23 I went through a stint where all I consumed was crackers and water. She found out and instead of trying to talk sense into me, she told me she was proud of me for finallly doing something positive about my weight and it was a good start. She told me that people were going to tell me that you need to eat to live, but that it''s just not true. She told me that I may get really bad stomach pains and pass out a few times, but that those things would pass. She ended the conversation by telling me that it was a really good start to giving up eating and she couldn't be prouder.

I woke up to my body issues at that exact moment!

Now I have a daughter. I tell my daughter every day that she's beautiful, but I also remind her to make healthy food choices and stay active because weight issues run in both sides of her family. I allow her to have treats once or twice a week, once she eats her healthy dinner. We keep her Easter Basket and it takes her months to get through the candy because she's only allowed a piece or two at a time. I'm teaching my daughter moderation, as it was never taught to me! lol

I was a solid child, in fact that's how my parents described me my whole life, solider than other toddlers/kids.
I probably was, and in my head that has always meant fat. But here's the thing, now I start to look back at pictures of me from childhood, I was thin, not skinny, but toned. I was always doing gymnastics, dance, running outside every chance I got. I was stupidly fast as a child, and as a result I am amazingly strong, even as an overweight adult, I can pick up and move around my 12.5 stone boyfriend, underneath the flabby bits, my thighs and stomach are well muscled. But in my head, I've been a fat girl since birth.

I wish my mum had encouraged my athleticism, and chosen her words more carefully. Yes I weighed more than the other kids, but I wasn't bigger, because, guess what muscle weighs more. I am now a strong (if overweight) adult with an hourglass figure. But I am not as big as I think I am, and I never have been.