When Bronte decides to wear a short skirt I don't tell her to cover up in case men get the wrong idea. When my daughter Freya puts on a tight dress I don't wince, I tell her it shows her beautiful curves. Therefore as a mother I model the behaviour I want to see in them, and I think more mums should be doing the same. In fact I applaud her for feeling confident enough to wear what they want Seeing that the girl could clearly hear their comments and was close to tears, I went over to her and said loudly 'You look amazing!' One mum wearing a padded jacket and riding boots piped up 'How can she go out wearing that?' 'She looks like a stripper,' chipped in another wearing leggings and a baggy flowered top 'I'd never let my child go out wearing that'.Īll this was said in front of their own young daughters whom I am sure were listening intensely to their mother's body shaming attitudes. I was in Starbucks last week with Freya, the place was packed with mothers and their children, a young girl about 16 walked in wearing a skin-tight short black dress. And I try to encourage other mothers to do the same. I believe as a mother my job is raise my daughters to feel 100 per cent happy with their bodies and feel able to show as much or as a little as they want - after all it is their body. Then there was the girl who broke down in tears in front of me because that morning her mum had told her she looked fat and insisted she replace her skirt with a pair of trousers as she looked like a 'tart'. Sarah wants to raise her daughters to be respectful, kind and considerate to other girls, and not judgmental One girl told me how she regularly skipped breakfast and lunch to stay slim, when I asked what her mum thought she said 'Oh, she was the one who suggested it'.Īnother told me how at 11 her mum was already saving up for the boob job she was going to have for her sixteenth birthday. As part of the research I carried out for my latest book, I surveyed four hundred girls aged 11 to 14 about their bodies.Ī staggering 70 per cent of them wanted to change their body in some way. That aside, I'm not sure what gives people the right to tell my daughters to cover up, or judge me on my parenting because I choose to allow them to do what they want with their bodies.Īs a parenting coach/expert, I know only too well that body image is a huge issue for young girls. None of these outfits are outfits I would call inappropriate. She was wearing a tight knee length dress with a piece cut out under the chest. Then there was the concerned family member who called to suggest I take a picture of Freya off Facebook because I might be encouraging 'unwanted attention'. The offending item that day? A playsuit with a cut out stomach. A friend once offered Sarah a coat to cover Bronte's legs when on the tube because 'she was asking for it'Īnother time, an entire family approached me on the train suggesting my daughter 'cover-up'.