This is one of those well-intentioned things that parents get dramatically wrong, over and over again. It doesn’t take overt body shaming, either. All it takes is being a parent who sees a kid’s decisions as a natural extension of his or her own. “I would stop eating right now, so you should, too. I would try my damnedest to be skinnier, so you’d better try your damnedest, too.” It’s like trying to turn your children into an extension of yourself, instead of welcoming the fact that they are completely different and separate and independent.
