Yesterday I was helping my 3 year old get dressed when she exclaimed, “I have big hips.”
What?! I must have heard her wrong. “I have big hips” she repeated. My heart started racing. Where did she hear that?! It’s not something I say. Or is it and I don’t remember? I started to get sweaty and a little panicky. My mind was racing with thoughts of body image and sexism and I thought that I had a few more years before I had to deal with this.
“I have big hips, like Mya (a classmate).” Okay, so I know that she got this from school. What should I say to her? And then what do I do? Do I talk to her teacher, the school, to Mya’s mom?
Hiccup . . . hiccup –I hear something from across the room and I’m pulled back to the present to hear my little girl hiccuping. “You have the hiccups like Mya?” I ask, “Yes Mommy.”
I almost passed out with relief.