Potatoes Are Beautiful! Has She SEEN Curly Fries?!

CONTENT WARNING: Eating Disorders/Body Image Struggles

We are visiting my mom with our three-year-old and our twelve-week-old. [Three-Year-Old] is tall and lanky with light blond hair. [Twelve-Week-Old] is short, chubby (as a baby should be), and dark-haired. My husband and I have taken to calling them “Leek” and “Potato” when talking about them which, I guess, may not be overly nice in some people’s eyes, but they are still little and don’t know, so no harm done for now.

Me: “Mom, could you pass me the little potato? I think she needs a diaper change.”

Mom: “Don’t call her that.”

Me: “Ah, she is twelve weeks old. She has no idea what we are calling her. We could be calling her ‘stinky butt’ and she wouldn’t know any better.”

Mom: “I just don’t want you to project anything!”

Me: “What?”

Mom: “Well, my coworkers always said I was forcing you into anorexia with the way I was talking about you and your body. Look at you. They were obviously wrong.”

Me: “Yeah…”

I am 5’6” and at least fifty pounds overweight, with body image issues, pretty much no self-esteem, and an unhealthy relationship with food — at least partly due to constantly being criticised about what I was eating, how much I was eating, and when I was eating, making me eat in secret.

Am I anorexic? No. Do I have an eating disorder? H*** yes. I wonder where that comes from.

Her coworkers may have been on to something back then…