Beautiful

We tell our children they're special and beautiful all the time, but at what point does the world tell them something different? When do our perfect babies become jadded, judgemental individuals? On my way to work this morning I watched in my rearview, as I do most mornings, as my little girl lay sleeping against the side of her car seat. And as I listened to the lyrics of Christina Aguilera's -Beautiful I got to thinking about the awful amount of bitching I do about my body in this blog. I realized that in doing so I'm setting the wrong example for my little girl who will potentially read this some day. We all have our own idea of what's beautiful, we all have our own expectations of ourselves but where do those ideas come from?

I know that most of mine came from my childhood. Having a mother who could never find a nice thing to say about me regardless of what I looked like, acted like or accomplished has made me very critical of myself and sometimes of others. This is something I do not wish to pass a long to my daughter so the vanity posts stop here!!

Beautiful by Christina Aguilera (Stripped, 2002)

I guess what I want to say to Abbey is, don't so as I do, do as I say. I can be more than a little vain sometimes, and almost always too critical of myself. You are beautiful, inside and out - you have been since the moment we first saw you. Life is short, spend your time, energy and effort on being the person you want to be. Being a good person for yourself is what makes you a beautiful person to others.

Here are some of my absolute favorite pcitures to date of my beautiful baby girl: