The Parent Book.
Therapist-written support for parents
Takeaway
One-page summary
One-page summary
Body Image
A chapter for parents who want to raise a child at peace in their own body.
From the full chapter at theparentbook.com/reader/body-image-and-the-conversations-we-do-not-realise-we-are-having
What helps around bodies and food talk
Most of this conversation happens without anyone deciding to have it. The work is in what the household stops saying.
- Install the no-diet-talk rule. No clean, bad, naughty, no “I shouldn’t”. Food is food, the body is the body, and nothing at the table is being scored.
- Go silent at the mirror. You do not have to perform body-love you do not feel. Swallow the disparaging sentence; the child registers the absence.
- Swap figure-talk for comfort-talk. In the changing room: “Do you like them. Are they comfortable. Do they feel like you.” Comfort and identity, not figure correction.
- Repair without ceremony. The diet talk simply stops. Months later, name it lightly, once: a piece of information about a household value you are deliberately changing, not a confession.
Urgent help
If you or your child is in immediate danger, call 999. If you, or your child, is in mental health crisis, call NHS 111 and choose the mental-health option in England, Scotland and Wales, or Lifeline, free and confidential on 0808 808 8000, in Northern Ireland. Every other helpline, including Childline, Papyrus, NSPCC, Shout and Samaritans, is at theparentbook.com/urgent-help.