Am I fat? Keeping my clothes on!

I took my 11 year old son for his annual physical this week and his doctor told him that he is in the 80th percentile for height and 60th percentile for weight. He immediately turned to me and asked "Mom, am I fat"?  It is kind of amazing to me that what he heard was that he weighed too much.  I had to explain that he is slightly above average in weight, but significantly above average in height, so no, he is not fat.  Isn't it amazing what our brains pick up and focus on. The fact that he could even think that he might be fat (I hate that word) shows me that he could easily be swayed into thinking he is something that he is not.  We are all so vulnerable.

I remember when my Mom was in her 60's she said to me "I want to look good in my clothes; I've given up looking good out of them".  After my initial thought of "ewww gross, don't talk about being naked, you are my mother", what she said made a lot of sense to me.  I never had the feeling that I looked good without my clothes on.  I've always been modest and self-conscious about my body.  I hated changing my clothes in the locker room after PE in junior high and high school, I've never been comfortable being naked in front of people including myself, and giving birth to 2 children with a million strangers in my business (it felt like a million) was mortifying.  Where did I learn this?  How did it happen?  I can't blame everything on my mother!!!  Well, I could, but that wouldn't be fair or realistic.  I wasn't teased about my body as a child or an adult that I can remember...it's weird.  In case you haven't noticed up to this point, I have issues!!  Like I always say "Jeri Grunke from Weiser, Idaho....I never had a chance - there is no way I was going to be cool or escape without issues!!!". 

I really want my children to grow up with positive self-images and I am thankful I don't have a daughter in which to pass my issues on.  I hope my boys know how amazing they are from within.  I can tell them that a million times, but unless they believe it and feel it on the inside, then it won't matter.  What we believe about ourselves is so much more powerful than what other think of us.  That's the hard part.