Happy and healthy

Or is there? You see so many parents on Trisha and Kilroy saying they have no idea why their child suddenly became fixated on food - eating it, not eating it, throwing it up. One gets the impression that it’s all to do with insecurity and self-image, but the parents are quite convincing on the subject of their children’s former stability and general joy.

It’s hard in a media culture of emaciation - doesn’t Jennifer Anniston look better now she is painfully thin? Well, no. She looks sort of glossier and less real and a lot less sexy and happy. But it must be possible to make children, especially girls, aware of the truth. And the truth is that people look better when they’re not thin. Also, and this we already know, when they’re not fat.

I would be devastated to think that my children might not like the way they look. They are so perfect and beautiful. She isn’t quite one yet but I worry about my daughter becoming a teenager and wanting to straighten her amazing wild curly hair. Or dye it or God knows what. How will I make her aware of how lovely she is? On the other hand, maybe she will have a short back and sides and be far too busy taking her motorbike apart to worry about her hair.