Love Comes in ALL Sizes

I created this blog for two reasons, first, I want to review games and movies I've watched and played. Now the movies will be ones from the past, if you want reviews and news on CURRENT movies, check out my friend at guysatthemovies.com. Second, I'll also use this blog to go on personal rants about different topics that are stuck in my mind.  I want this blog to be more reviews than rants, but we'll see how it goes.
This is something that's been on my mind for awhile now and it just can't be stuck there anymore.
I should reference the post from Single Dad Laughing about "Breaking Your Child". This post will have a similar theme to it.
I may not have one, but this is mainly about daughters so I'll be using that term mostly cause it's primarily affecting them. Though I don't have a daughter, I have sisters, female cousins, nieces, etc that help me feel the empathy for this situation.
Our society today is so driven by image.  It is particularly hard for the young women in our society, they have so much pressure on them to look "perfect".
It's bad enough that our daughters have to watch hollywood and their trends and put up with the pressure and cliques in school, but what makes it worse is when their own homes aren't a safe haven for them.
Our daughters should not feel pressure at home to be a certain size or look a certain way just to feel a part of their own family or to get validation from their mom and dad.
Too often if their daughter develops an eating disorder the parents are quick to blame society or the media. They never seem to want to accept that they themselves might have done the worst damage.
I don't get how a parent could keep breaking their daughter down about her size. One theory I have is that the parent is too into their own body image and transfers that level of devotion into drilling it into their daughters. Another one is that the parent feels their daughter is a representation of themselves and thus they feel the need to ensure they are sending out a "product" worthy of society's standards.
Parents, this needs to stop.  Our daughters deserve better than this.  If they ask you if you love them the answer should always be, "Yes", "Of course", "Absolutely".  That should NEVER be followed up by words like, "But.....", "If......", or "As long as you.....". Honestly, I don't think it should even be a question they should have to ask. They should be able to look you in the eye and tell themselves, "Yes, my mom and dad love me."  If they do ask, listen, there is probably a reason behind it.  Ask them back, "Why do you ask?"  "Is there something on your mind?"  If you open yourselves when they come to you, it's likely they'll remain open with you as they continue growing through their teenage years and beyond.
Yes, I do understand it's important to live a healthy lifestyle, but every interaction with your daughter should not be twisted back into their eating/exercise habits or their size.
It makes me think of something stated by my mission president in his book on fatherhood, but it can apply to mothers, "He (she) becomes more a model than a critic to his (her) children."
Do not pressure your precious daughters to be a size 0. They get enough of that at school, in tv, in movies and in magazines.  Please embrace your daughters as they are. Give them a sincere hug and let them know how beautiful and special they are. Assure them that you love them and you are proud of what they've accomplished. It works better than tearing them down for what you feel they're doing wrong, trust me.
I hope we as parents (and even us aunts and uncles can do our part) can assure our daughters that we love and care for them and it doesn't matter what "size" they are.  Let's do our part to build them back up before something drastic happens, so that they can smile for real, so that they're happy in their own skin again.