Monkey see, monkey do...

My 2 year old daughter loves watching me while I wash my face, brush and floss my teeth. She asks me to put moisturizer on her face, then she flosses her teeth with me.  In the mornings, she likes to apply lip balm, while I get my make-up on.  She brushes her hair with her head turned upside down while I do the same with the blow dryer.

When I exercise she dances around me, she jumps on the mini-trampoline, and picks up the 2 lb hand weights and tries to lift them overhead.

I'm hoping that by watching me and imitating me she'll pick up some healthy habits.

I do know that she watches the things I'm not so proud of too.  And she imitates these things.  Like when I yell at her older brothers, she yells at them too.

Recently I read a post that girls will have a better body image of themselves if their moms have a good attitude about their body.  Hmmm, how many times have I looked in the mirror and criticized something I wasn't happy about?  How many times was my daughter around when I've done this?

I want my daughter to see exercise and good nutrition as a way of staying healthy, not to achieve the perfect body. I don't want her to look in the mirror and pick herself apart.

So how about you? What types of things are your kids picking up on? I know we can't censor what we do all the time, but if you want your kids to be happy with themselves, we have to be happy with ourselves.

I'd love to hear from you! Please feel free to leave a comment or email me at fitwithjessica@live.com