SO I am chatting with a friend yesterday and she asks about my daughters. I comment that my younger one is starting to fill out and I suspect puberty is right around the corner. Suddenly she goes off about how I need to hurry up and buy her wide tight belts and start belting her waist so that I can keep it small!
I lughed. I thought she had to be kdding but no she went on to explain how to keep the belt really tight every day so her hips would grow but her waist wouldn't.
I said, "No thanks, I plan on letting her be her perfect healthy self, whatever that is and teaching her to love her body as is."
Before you ask, no she is not in the slightest overweight. She is perfectly average for her BMI and runs track.
Is that the crazest thing you ever heard? What would you have said??
Great response! (Tightens wide belt...)
I can't think of anything that touches that, but have heard whispers of cats "stealing breath from babies" and the like.
Did she or her mom grow up in a different country? That's so very backwards. I hope she doesn't have a daughter!
Wow, I was going to head back to the gym, but maybe I'll just buy a belt.
recently I saw a news show that played a story about women using corsetts to make their waist smaller. Apparently this is a new trend. Apparently, the idea is to tie the corsett a little bit tighter each day. Your friends suggestion sounds similiar to the corsett concept.
I think the whole thing is ridiculous! I can't believe an adult would even suggest subjecting a child to such a thing!
I would have asked if it was too late to start binding her feet.
I hope this other mom doesn't have any girls! Can we say "geisha girls"?
Yikes!
The last time I was at a fancy shoe store the shoes look like torture! I remarked to my H, why don't we just bind our feet and get it over with?
This kind of stuff this day in time is not about men's dominance but some women's unreasonable standards for each other.
Thank you for stopping it at the source!
I would have told her that her idea was nuts and ask if her mom made her wear a hat two sizes too small, so her brain couldn't fully develop.
(not really, but sheesh.... oh, and yes, corsets, can we say 'flushed and breathless' because the women who wore them couldn't take a deep breath? Hence those Victorian-era fainting dainties....)
Good recovery, S. E. I likely would have just stared at her like she grew two heads.... Stupidity strikes me dumb!
That's so sad. Yeah, binding the developing body is not only physically unhealthy, but what message does that send to the girl? I suspect your friend is older and doesn't have girls -- at least I'm hoping...
What an idiot - let's bind her feet while we're at it so they stay petite. I don't know if I would have said anything, but I would have done a spit-take and laughed hysterically.
Theresa beat me to it - I immediately thought of binding her feet too! What planet or century is your friend from? Honestly, we've got to put science lessons back in schools!
Your answer was perfect!
I would have asked her "So should I get a whale-bone corset or do they have high tech ones made from titanium these days? Or can we just borrow YOURS from when you were a girl?"
Really hope she doesn't have any daughters!
Probably you should bind her feet too, and her belly to prevent "outsieness" as well.
Hard to believe people still think that way, what century is this?
:)
So it's my MOM's fault my waist is too big?? I'm going to hop on the phone and tell her "Thanks to your laziness by NOT making me wear tight wide belts my waist is too big:" Ya, that's crazy and I too though of the feet binding. Thanks for the giggle.
sounds like she comes from an Asian culture - where they bound feet and waists to stay petite.
I would just let her rant away and do what you are going to do - which is the right thing - let her be!!!
Yeah, that's pretty crazy. I think you handled it beautifully. Your post reminds me of what my mom did to me when I growing up. One day when I was about 10, we walked into a shoe store to buy me some shoes. The shoe salesman measured my foot and told my mother that I needed a size 9. She was livid and pulled me out of the store. She had me wearing size 8's because she refused to believe my foot was a 9! In her world, 9 was amazon size. Well, growing up, all of my toes to this day are crooked--geez I wonder why? That was totally stupid on her part. I commend you for being realistic.
Oh so THAT's HOW YOU DO IT.
Just kidding...she sounds a little wacky. Incidentally what is SHE built like. No need to answer. Just wondering. That is very strange.
Wow. Should you bind her feet as well? Maybe make her walk around with a dictionary on her head so she doesn't grow too tall?
I think your response was perfect.
I mean, how wide a belt are we talking here... like....CORSET wide? :)
Does she need reminding that such contraptions actually displaced women's internal organs back in the day?
...at least they werent fat though, right?
;)
Sounds like you handled it beautifully. I would have had a hard time covering my shock.
The only waist belts that I'm aware of are the neoprene belts that people wear when working out. I wouldn't have a problem letting my kid wear that-if she was interested.
