She doesn't think she's beautiful

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I read this blog post earlier today. It nearly made me cry. And oh so thankful I have boys!
I had some other mothers tell me they have dealt with very similar issues with their daughters.
Wow.

We were lying, legs entangled, in her twin-size bed. It was bedtime, the midsummer evening's light still streaming in the window, and we had just finished our ritual of reading and praying. She held a small stuffed penguin she had singled out from her rag-tag battalion for special treatment that night. Nose to nose, I told her she was beautiful. Her brow furrowed and she looked away. Then she whispered in the penguin's ear. And the penguin spoke.
"But SHE doesn't think she's beautiful."
My heart plunged into my stomach. Not this, Lord, please. She's only 7.
"Oh, but I think she is," I addressed the penguin. "I've thought so since the day she was born."
Emma whispers in the penguin's ear again. "But you're her mother, you have to say that."
"I'm not the only one," I said. "Her daddy, her grandparents, her whole family thinks so. And her friends, too. God made her just the way she is, just the way He wanted her to look."
"But," the penguin started to speak but Emma remembered to whisper to him first. And then: "But when she looks in the mirror, she doesn't like what she sees."

http://theintelligencer.net/page/blogs.detail/display/1459/She-doesn-t-think-she-s-beautiful.html

 

[Mizzougrad96]

What? This isn't a One Direction thread?

 

[KJIM]

My brain went to Sammy Kershaw.

 

[poindexter]

Lisa: [sobbing] I'm ugly, dad.

Homer: No you're not. You're cute as a bug's ear.

Lisa: Fathers have to say that.

Homer: [as Grampa walks by] Dad, am I cute as a bug's ear?

Grampa: No, you're homely as a mule's butt!

Homer: [to Lisa] See?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Not to sound like a ****, but...

Does anyone reading it actually believe that conversation actually took place? Because I don't. 7 year olds don't talk like that. Painfully bad literary devices talk like that.

 

[Double J]

My brain went to Sammy Kershaw.

Ditto.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

Which is more tragic, that a 7-year-old doesn't think that she's beautiful, or that a 7-year-old has had any hope of a private life stolen by her mother's making her into fodder for a blog?

 

[poindexter]

The 7-year-old is a 6.

 

[da man]

Not to sound like a ****, but...

Does anyone reading it actually believe that conversation actually took place? Because I don't. 7 year olds don't talk like that. Painfully bad literary devices talk like that.

I'm not sure if a 7-year-old would say that. It never came up in our house. I have two daughters, and at that age one of them was absolutely certain she was the most beautiful creature who ever lived and the other didn't seem to care at all as long as she could kick your ass on the soccer field.

 

[JR]

Not to sound like a ****, but...

Does anyone reading it actually believe that conversation actually took place? Because I don't. 7 year olds don't talk like that. Painfully bad literary devices talk like that.

God, that was embarrassingly badly written. Cringingly awful

 

[93Devil]

Sounds like she ran into a child that picked on her by making fun of her looks.

That could have brought about these feelings.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Sounds like she ran into a child that picked on her by making fun of her looks.

That could have brought about these feelings.

That was the impression I got ... as I stated earlier, I had two mothers on FB state the same thing with their kids, who are also close to that age.

I know the writing is not the best - had it I wanted to highlight it, I would have put on the journo board. I'm more interested in kids dealing with this at an early age ...
As the fellow whose kid brother splattered his 15-year-old brains all over the bedroom one Sunday morning, something like this from one my kids would scare the **** out of me.

 

[exmediahack]

Some asshole kid at my daughter's school said my second-grader has "buck teeth".

It's taken me half the damn summer to get that out of her mind.

 

[britwrit]

Ah.. A little bit of depressing to start the long day off with.

 

[Football_Bat]

The 7-year-old is a 6.