Wednesday Wisdom Tip: “Dear Santa” Sending Damaging Message

 

“Dear Santa – This year please give me a big fat bank account and a slim body. Please don’t mix these two up like you did last year.”

This message, intended for in the adult section of holiday decor at Dillard’s, found it’s way to the children department instead.

I am afraid this isn’t the only time when our obsession with body image and our income wiggles into our children’s worlds and eventually their hearts.

The real problem here isn’t that the plaque was placed in the wrong department. The real problem is when our insecurities with our appearance and our affluence (or lack of it) not only effect us but spill over to our children.

Our words, written or said, in jest or beyond joking, have power. The power to bring confidence or self-consciousness.

Use this as an opportunity to talk to our kids about the power of words and the messages we are confronted with each day. The “good life” is about so much more than our body shape and account balance.

Gorgeous is more than a face in the mirror.

Lynn