HEY! Fat Girl!

Being a fat kid is hard. Being a fat girl in this society, is even harder. I was the fat girl and I remember, no matter how hard I try to forget, all the slights and name calling that was thrown my way. Not by strangers, but family. Now I have written about this before, but a conversation I had last week with a young lady prompted me to remember and I got PISSED! Who do these people think they are? You would think that being family that they would not say hurtful things to you, that they would look after your emotional and physical well-being. Not always the case I see. Everyone talks about bullying in the schools, they have whole commercials and talk shows dedicated to the subject. They talk about how being different is okay; different ethnically, sexually, etc. and that is wonderful. But I swear I have never seen or heard anyone talk about being the fat girl in school or being totally, emotionally whipped by family. Now, I am not saying that they don't have something out there that addresses this, I have just never seen it.  Then I wonder about the parents that allow siblings to pick on and humiliate other siblings, why don't they stop it? Some excuse it as sibling rivalry, really?! How is being called a fat bitch by your own brother sibling rivalry? Tubby, whale, elephant, tub-a-lard, I could go on, I have a slew of them. As I was talking to this girl and seeing her hurt, and hearing her hurt, my heart went out to her. No one can hurt you like family and we can't control who we are related to. But she understood that this IS a form of bullying and it isn't normal nor should you get used to such bad behavior. Our job as parents and family members is to teach all of our children that they are special. That's it. It shouldn't be a hard job! Not to allow one child to belittle another. That's it. Is this so hard? When we don't help our children love themselves that is a recipe for disaster. Have we all not watched enough Oprah and Dr. Phil shows to know what happens to kids with low self-esteem? We have to do better parents! Pay attention to what is going on in your homes. Wishing you Peace and Love, but mostly Peace.