The first thing that comes to mind when I read that is "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." What I think is beautiful may not be what you think is beautiful.
There are some things that as a mother of boys that I feel I have to teach them. A case in point was a conversation with Brent earlier this year. His friends & him were talking about their mother's weights & one friend said that their mother (who is about 6 foot 2 with a lovely slim figure) weighed 85kgs. The boys laughed & said that she weighed the same amount as an elephant so she must look like one. Brent was then asked what I weighed. I happened to walk in on the conversation then & was able to take him away. Brent then asked me how much I weighed. My weight & size is an issue with me, but I give myself credit for going to the gym & doing exercise about 5 times a week to at least have a healthy if hefty body. I said that I weighed 85kg. He laughed at me & his jaw kind of dropped. I asked why he wanted to know & he told me the conversation he had had with his friends. I said that it didn't matter what people weighed & that it is better to find out what people are like as friends, than to judge someone on their weight or their looks.
I really do feel that I have to teach the boys to value people for more than their looks & that they have to value themselves for their non physical attributes as well as their physical ones.
Natural beauty is all around us. I see it in the way light hits crystals & then casue a lovely rainbow explosion of colours. I see it when the light plays on dewdrops caught on spiders webs. I see it in the way the steam rises when the sun hits it..jpg)
I think there is beauty all around us, either physical, artistic or natural & we just have to take the time to STOP, look & hear & we will see it.
6 comments:
What a wonderful teachable moment! And you handled it perfectly! I used to bring this topic up in my high school class a lot and the kids admitted that they made fun of other people's physical traits in hope that it would make them feel better about themselves. So we worked on helping them feel good about themselves.
I think you're right that we especially need to teach our boys to value a woman based on more than her appearance...but society makes it so difficult sometimes!
So true! I wish more people thought like you and taught their boys like that too. You handled that situation very well.
That's really wonderful that you had a chance to teach your son something very important, something that he'll remember as he grows older.
I hope you don't mind me adding your blog to my links. For some reason I never realised you had a blog ... I have all the other SE girls on my blogroll so would like you on there too!
I'm a mum of 2 boys so I think I'll have a lot to learn from you (sounds like your boys are older than mine).
Hannah aka honeybumble from SE!
Katrina, your writing is beautiful. I think you really have a talent.
You are so right Katrina and something else I've learned is that we have to teach our boys that they are "beautiful" too
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