Teaching boys to have a healthy body image

In the almost two years that I've been raising a boy, I have stopped in my tracks many times to ask myself "Am I giving him all that he'll need to grow up and be the best person he can be?". I wonder so many times about how he'll treat others but I've rarely stopped to think how he will treat himself.

I always hear parents of girls worry that their daughter will grow up and continuously compare herself to others and think she isn't beautiful because she doesn't have that girl's hair or the other girls perfect smile. Believe me, if I had a daughter I would nip this behavior in the bud and make sure she understands she is beautiful because she is herself.

But I have a boy. Am I supposed to be naive and think he won't have body image issues?

Part of me wants to. But it very well may happen.

This morning as I was taking a shower and listening to Colin play in the bathroom, he suddenly got quiet. As I peeked out of the shower to see what he was doing, I found him standing on the scale just like he sees me do every morning. He was clapping though...something I do not do! My first thought was "Oh, sh**. What am I teaching him?!"

I couldn't get the image of him on the scale out of my mind. What if he grows up to be dependent on the scale, hates his body, and goes to extreme measures to diet and lose weight? I had to force myself to put those thoughts out of my mind.

Because that is certainly not what I am teaching him.

I am teaching him to have a healthy relationship with his body. I don't want him to ever feel embarrassed about how he looks compared to someone else. And if he ever is unhappy with his weight or how his body looks, I want him to have the knowledge of how to change it in a safe and healthy way.

I want to teach him to have a healthy relationship with food and to understand it's okay to indulge from time to time. Life is about the little pleasures and if chocolate cake gives him pleasure once a month, THEN EAT THE CHOCOLATE CAKE!

These are all things I wish someone would have taught me while I was growing up.