Reposting this because it’s sitting at 1.5 million views at the other place. Generally speaking, Tt does not like when I say nice things about my body and will suppress the views when I do but more people need to hear this so we’re saying it again. 🩵

The other day while I was getting dressed, my seven-year-old walked in, smushed her face into my belly and said, "I love your big fat squishy belly." I took a moment, took a breath, let the shame roll over me, and thought about what my teenager said to me about two weeks ago. They had just gotten back from school. I was working in my room at my desk and they said, "Mom, can I talk to you for a minute?" And of course, I threw everything to the side and said anything. When your teen wants to talk, you shut everything down real quick. You snuggle up on my bed and my sad, "Mom, I was thinking about it today, and I have never heard you say anything bad about your body. I've never heard you talk about losing weight, dieting, how you don't like certain parts of yourself. You've only ever talked about your body being good, being strong, being beautiful, or just kind of being indifferent to it. And I think that that has impacted me hugely. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mom. So I finished taking that deep breath and I looked at my seven-year-old and I said, "I know." Isn't it great? Did you know what this big fat squishy belly has done? It made you, it made your siblings. It runs, it hikes, it gardens, it creates, arts and crafts and food and fun and silliness and the best snuggles. And she said, "I know. That's why I like it so much." And listen, loving my body has not been easy. But the moment my child was born, sixteen years ago, I told myself the way that my child sees their body is going to be the way that they think I see mine. This negative self-talk, this weighing myself constantly, it ends now. Even if I don't believe it, I'm gonna fake it like I do. And every single day it's been a struggle. Every single day it has been conscious effort to be nice about my body and up until a week ago, I didn't know if it even mattered. Guess what? It matters. Be nice to yourself, because not only do your kids deserve it, but you do too. And as hard as it's been, as much as I've had to fake it, I have found that I love myself now more too.