Pretty....just the way YOU are!

With all the media and their bombardment of fashion and how to look...one can get lost easily. I know, I can fall for these traps.....buy this and look like this model that is 18. Its hard....we watch movies and television shows and the girls hair is perfect, along with perfect make up and accessories...I know while watching Sex and the City, I sometimes ponder about getting this or that or doing my hair like Carrie. I am a 30 something(gulp) and still am persuaded by what I see. I still find flaws in myself and find it hard to accept that my Husband thinks I'm pretty.....but I am sure that we are all like that...right, maybe just slightly?? We would want a tighter tummy(after three kids), less thigh, more boobs or less boobs, blond hair, dark hair, NO grey hair.....MAYBE we are ALWAYS left to want something more.....are we ever truly happy with what we have? Or is this the media telling us....to achieve perfection, buy this!! AND granted, this can go beyond OUR own LOOKS....cars, style of home, bigger and better, more money etc etc...

But with all this, I am proud of my daughter who is 4 1/2. Like all parents, we tell our children that they are pretty or handsome...we boost their self esteem...we tell them that they are perfect the way they are. I tell this to my three kids. Just recently, I was talking with Katie...we are going to a wedding, and it was suggested that all the little girls wear their Princess Dresses. I thought Katie would be excited to dress up and go out. I told her, " you can be pretty in your dress...and everyone will see you!" Her reply, " I just want to wear my jeans and sit with you...I'm pretty just as I am." It HIT me....I told her to wear her dress to be pretty...but she had it right...she doesn't need the dress...she just needs jeans, cause SHE IS PRETTY, no matter what she wears. That's what we have to instill in our kids......we are PRETTY and HANDSOME...just the way we are!! I hope that my kids don't forget that and get hooked like other fish...dangling all this hype/fashion/bigger is better crap in front of them. I have to admit, I have been a fish, its hard not to be......but as we get older, we get wiser!!

So....I guess I am doing OK with my parenting and instilling that they are PERFECT...just the way they are...and perhaps too....I should take some of my own advice...and then I would feel less uncomfortable when my Hubby tells me that I am pretty! Cause its easier to believe the negativity of ones self, than the positivity...sadly!