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Friday, July 23, 2010

Body Image

There is one particular mum that I see at school every day.
I don't know her name.
She doesn't have a child in my child's class.
But I notice her every day.
Why?
She has a perfect body!
I don't know what she does but she could easily be a gym or fitness instructor because she wears skin tight sporty type clothes
...every...day.
It's the kind of body I don't expect to see on a mum with multiple children.
If I was an immature high school girl, I might be inclined to mutter unkind words (possibly starting with 'b') under my breath.
But as I was walking behind her perfectly-toned-with-not-one-gram-of-fat-lycra-clad body this morning, I had these thoughts...

I wonder if she knows how much other mums or maybe it's just me covet her figure.
I wonder if she thinks she has a perfect body.
I wonder if she has self doubt about other issues or if her life is perfect because she has a perfect body.
She must have other woes, nobody's life is perfect, right?
I just wonder what they are (I'm nosy like that).

And then a funny thing happened as I was walking home.
I noticed my shadow in front of me.
And guess what?
It was perfect.
I don't need to lose weight, I just need to be elongated.
Then I'd be perfect and have nothing to worry about.
Yeah, right!
Even if had a perfect body I'm sure I'd find something else would be wrong.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

9 comments:

  1. It's so typically female of us to think like this! Luckily I've managed to snap myself out of it for the most part, reminding myself that we all have good bits and bad bits.

    Of course, when I see a lady with a bangin' hot body, I get a twinge of jealousy, but I don't let it get to me. I might just hop on the treadmill for an extra 10 minutes or something!

    Nobody's perfect. Everybody has flaws, no matter how perfect we think they are.

    Great post xx

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  2. I imagine there is very little correlation between body type and happiness. Very little at all.

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  3. Not just a female thing Jane.

    We all have these thoughts, men might just not be as honest about it.

    I try and tell myself that perfection would be boring...I am more interesting and happy the way I am.

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  4. Oh Thea, I hear you. And the mad thing is, there is a school mum whose body I amire too, and when I mentioned her figure to my lovely husband, he straight away said that "her bum is way too small". So my perfection is evidently not someone elses....makes me wonder, like you, what we are striving for?! xx

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  5. Huge hug Thea. Love this post!

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  6. We're all critical of our selves. The trick for me anyway is to try and not let it become a habit.
    Some days are better than others... some clothes look better than others... we are all different, and it's the differences that makes life worth living! x

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  7. Yeah, I do that too. But from my experience, even seriously hot women (including celebs and models I've interviewed over the years) have their own insecurities. I think no matter how gorgeous a girl is, there is always going to be someone thinner/hotter/fitter/whatever.
    I've made my peace with it over the years (kind of)...

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  8. Oh Thea, I love this post! :D SO honest and I can so relate! LOL Why do we do this to ourselves??

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  9. I tell myself I'm, not fat, I'm just short for my weight. If I were 10cms taller then I'd be perfect :-)

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