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Mum fuming after mother-in-law fat shames toddler: 'Ridiculous'
A mum has shared her frustration online over the way her mother-in-law keeps telling her young son "he'll get fat".
Taking to popular parenting forum Mumsnet, the woman asked for advice sharing a post titled: "To ask my mother-in-law (MIL) to stop making fat comments around my son?"
"Two weeks in a row now my MIL has told my 19 month old son that he’ll get fat if he keeps eating," she explained.
"He's not fat, nowhere near it, but even if he was I don't think that she should be making such comments to someone at such a young age.
"I want to ask her to stop but not sure how well it will go down or if I'm just being unreasonable."
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The post was flooded with close to 100 comments, with most people agreeing the boy's grandmother was out of line.
"I don't think she should be saying that to anyone let alone a toddler," one person commented.
"Definitely tell her to stop! And if she doesn't like it, that's her problem. It's a super unhealthy thing to be doing around toddlers/young children," another agreed.
"It's a ridiculous thing to say that has the potential to make a child totally anxious about eating," was another response.
Many more agreed, and pointed out the impact those words could have on the child, despite his young age.
"It's never too early to consider the effect of one's words on a developing person," one comment read.
"You are perfectly entitled to ask her to stop saying that. She might say she's only joking but at some point he will understand and it's not a joking matter," another said.
While a third shared their own similar situation: "My mum used to do things like this around my [daughter] I nipped it in the bud and told her politely but firmly that comments like that were unnecessary and to please stop."
According to Harvard Medical School, this kind of criticism and shaming "may make children feel bad about themselves".
"When the people you love the most, and whose opinion matters most, say bad things about you, it can be more than hurtful — it can affect your self-esteem in ways that can become ingrained and permanent," Claire McCarthy, MD, explains.
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