Perfectly Imperfect Parents – Body Image.

Another aspect that is crucial is to teach boys not to judge girls by their appearance so that when they are women, they will not ogle women, another subtle message that women`s bodies are more important than their inner selves. Also teach girls to avoid women`s magazines that focus only on physical appearance, to not spend so much money on make-up and beauty products, but to spend their time and energy on becoming better people and in helping others.

I love Mallika`s approach to focus on the inner self, and to give self-esteem by promoting self-confidence and for children to know who they are and to value their inner selves, that their inner beauty is the most important part of their life. I think that promoting self-confidence by focussing on the physical is very limiting as the body is going to eventually age and die. If our self-confidence was primarily based on our physical appearance, then we severely limit our happiness in our old age or whether our body suffers any deformity due to illness or accident (losing a limb or the use of a limb for example). If our self-confidence is based on our spiritual virtues (kindness, generosity, patience, honesty, patience...), then no matter what our body looks like, or is able to do, we are still whole and valuable human beings.

This is a huge campaign, I`ve been teaching self esteem, self acceptance for years. It bothers me greatly when I hear parents, criticizing, even commenting on the body shapes, features of pop artists, etc., This creates conflict the child`s mind. Parents please refrain, from judging others even in jest.