Bucket Of Self Esteem Filler

We didn't have anything we had to do tonight, which was nice. So we came home, had a nice dinner, and then snuggled on the couch to watch some Christmas shows. Liz sent me a text and said to check our front porch. They had dropped off some yummy treats!

I almost put Autumn to bed at the usual 8:00, but then I remembered that we had to go pick up Nick from work at 9:00. While we were waiting for him to come out to the car, Autumn said some kids at school told her she's fat!!! I immediately had to suppress all my anger and hurt feelings from my own school days when kids told me the same thing. I told her that she is NOT fat at all. She said she feels fat b/c she has big thighs that take up a lot of room on the bench. I told her that her legs are STRONG, not fat, and that she has to have strong legs to hold up her awesome Amazon warrior princess body.

We talked about how no matter what you look like, kids will always find something to tease you about. Even if you're skinny, kids will tease you about that. Or if you're too tall or too short or too whatever. I told her that she can just hold her head up high, b/c she knows who she really is and what those kids thing doesn't matter. That doesn't mean it won't hurt when they say unkind things, but that ultimately their opinion is just that ... their opinion. I talked about how she should actually feel sorry for the mean kids. The kids that are picking on others and saying unkind things are only doing that b/c they feel bad about themselves. Maybe their parents say those mean things to them, or maybe they don't get hugged or told they're loved, etc.

It broke my heart that she's having to deal with this already and she's only EIGHT years old!!! I think she felt a lot better after our talk, and I hope she feels like she can always come to me to talk and that I'll listen and validate how she's feeling. It made me think of this quote, "parents need to fill a child's bucket of self esteem so high (and often) that the rest of the world can't poke enough holes to drain it dry." ~Alvin Price