ODP Day 11: Make-Up, Weight-Loss and Little Girls

I'm stealing a moment here, while Jaguar sleeps and in between doing housework (living room hoovered and pretty tidyish if you don't look on tables and kitchen dishes done and put away and tidyish if you don't look at the stacks of paper the kids have been drawing on). Lolly will be home from nursery soon, so let's see what I can say in the short time I have spare here.

This morning was a mad rush all around, so I wasn't ready (or even close) by the time Scott left, so Fifi took this photo. Not bad for a five year old! She took it and then yelped, 'Uh oh, I didn't get part of your hand!' That's okay, dear, as long as you got the shoes.

I'm wearing the dress with a long sleeved white t-shirt underneath, grey knit leggings, some nude/beige/pink/I don't know what colour shoes I'd forgotten all about, and a gold velour blazer. My hair is pulled back because I couldn't think what to do with it this morning and didn't have time for experimentation. I'm barely wearing make-up - just some foundation, powder, mascara and lipstick.

So there we go, on the subject of looks and make-up....

Cue another segue...

I read a really good article on How To Talk To Little Girls. It's a great article, well worth popping over for a quick read.

Go on, read the article then come back here. I'll wait.

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Finished? Cool. So I've been thinking about this article a lot. I know I refer to my daughters' looks quite often, and I do think it's important for little girls to know they are pretty (especially hearing it from Dad, which their dad is very good about). But I also don't want them to obsess about looks. I wonder what kind of role model I'm being for them, concerning myself with my looks so much. Since turning 30, I've started wearing make-up daily, whereas before that, it was more an occasion thing. I've been guilty of referring to myself as 'ugly' now and again, not in front of the kids necessarily, but possibly within hearing. Do I want my girls to think that they have to have make-up on to be pretty? Do they think it's important to always be made up, since they see me do my make-up every morning?

On top of that, I'm very conscious about weight. Since having Jaguar, I've probably moaned far too much to Scott about my baby fat that I am desperate to shake, and my girls most certainly pick up on this. I try not to call myself 'fat' within their earshot, but still, hearing me talk about weight and wanting to lose it may not be the best thing for them.

Scott is on a diet right now and is losing a lot of weight. The girls hear us talk about weight a lot in reference to him losing it, and they hear us talk about carbs. They are obsessed with carbs. We've managed to assure them that children don't need to worry about carbs and that they are allowed carbs, but still, they ask all the time 'Does this have carbs?' I don't like them worrying about these things. I've told them it's important to eat healthy ('Eat things Auntie Charity would eat' we often say!). But they talk about diets and carbs anyway.

I'm hoping this month, in regards to clothes, I can at least be a good role model for them in that sense. Maybe I could talk to them more about why I'm wearing the same dress every day - not just to raise money for sick people, but also as a way of simplifying my clothes and finding the potential of the things we already own.

What do you think? Is wearing make-up a bad example to set for young girls? Or is there a dialogue we could be having with our daughters about what may seem like a double standard?




We are taking part in the October Dress Project in support of Macmillan Cancer Support. Please consider donating to our cause.