Reviving Ophelia

I read "Reviving Ophelia" a few years ago when I was working with young teenage girls (women?) and it had a strong impact on the way I reflected on my teen years. I saw the pressures and choices that I made more clearly. Now Dianne is reading the book and it reminded me that I have two daughters that are going to go through adolescence. That's enough to keep me up at night. For years. (And I haven't even seen Thirteen which I've been assured will completely disturb and frighten me to the point of wanting to lock my children up for years.) I don't remember a lot of the details of the book but to quote loosely, Dianne mentioned that the average American woman is significantly bigger than she was years ago and yet the ideal being pushed is getting thinner and thinner.

I'm terrified about watching my daughters navigate those impossible waters but draw comfort from a comment a good friend of mine (that's you Kim) once made about kids - it's not like you wake up one day and they're 6 (or 10 or 13), you learn how to deal with different stages as they grow. I want to use these years to build a solid foundation for them to draw on and try to teach the tools for making good decisions. Unfortunately we won't know how well we've done until we've all been through it. And that's assuming they'll place any stock in anything we've said in the first place!