Dear Pinterest Commentator,

Thank you for sharing your opinion - "thats disgusting.  please stop ruining the world for our daughters." on my pinboard (pin pictured right.).  While I appreciate the fact that you are standing up for "our daughters," maybe you should worry more about how you're raising your own daughter and less about how I'm raising mine.

This quote is to motivate ME. This is not a quote that I would put on a post-it note on my daughter's bathroom mirror in the morning to motivate HER. I will not motivate her to be skinny.  I will, however, motivate her to be healthy. I will motivate her to be confident in herself, to accept that she has flaws, but then don't we all? I will motivate her to work with those flaws and not let them define her, but rather, enhance her. I will motivate her to enjoy running outside, to love chasing a volleyball, and to laugh when riding a bike as much as I will motivate her to read books, to study science, and to do well on her math tests.

I can't shield her from everything and I can't mother everyone else's daughters. I can only give her the tools to stand up for herself and also, I hope, to stand up for others. I can tell her that not all girls are pretty on the inside and to be careful when choosing a friend, but that sometimes you have to learn those hard lessons on your own. And I will be there to listen to her when someone else's daughter tells her that her voice is squeaky or her cheeks are too round or her hair is stringy or that she's too slow and too short to play volleyball. I will be there to motivate her to look past the mean things that someone else's daughter spewed in her direction. I will empower her to rise above and, in the face of meanness, offer kindness instead. I will teach her that doing the right thing is not always the easy thing. I will tell her that it's okay to fall down seven times as long as she stands up eight.

So, thank you for bringing to my attention that some mothers are not really very good at mothering. I am not one of them.

As for me, I am motivated when I read this quote. I realize that healthy and skinny are not always synonymous.  I realize that I will not ever be considered skinny; I would like to be considered healthy, though.  So, when I read this quote, I am motivated to rise above the ice cream craving or the potato chips in the pantry.  I am motivated to take off another 25 pounds and 25 more after that.  I lived a hard decade and I grew a human and it's evident in my waist line and my hips and my bum. Does wanting to get rid of that excess make me a bad person?  I don't think so.  I think proves that I'd like to be around to protect my children from the world, to pick them up when they fall, to motivate them to be more than they thought they could be and remind them that they are prefect just as they are. I can't do that for very long if I stay the weight I am, my life expectancy will not allow it. I can do it as a healthy person.

I will do it as a healthy person.  And I will motivate myself as I see fit.

Sincerely,

Heather.