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

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.