Parenting
Are you a parent of a child living with obesity, or do you yourself live with obesity?
What's your experience been like?
Do you have open conversations about health, nutrition, and stigma with your children?
How have your interactions with healthcare providers been?
Who or what has been the most supportive for you?
Just the other day, I witnessed a boy at a swim lesson with my sons who was clearly being treated differently because of his high weight. His parents and the instructor were baffled at his inability to complete the lesson benchmarks because he was larger and older than the other children. To my eye, he was absolutely trying his best and was doing great. They singled him out, they were publically shaming him, reminding him that he is “very buoyant” and calling out to him to listen to his instructor.
After the lesson I asked my boys why they thought he was being treated that way. We had an chat about how when learning physical things, everyone’s body is different and everyone goes at their own pace. I pointed out that bigger bodies will swim differently than smaller bodies and told them they should always be kind to people as they are learning something new, and that they should remind others to be kind and patient also if they see them singling out one person like that.
