“Mom, do you know what BFF stands for?”  my son questioned.

”Yeah, of course! It’s best friends forever” I replied in hopes that he might want to ask me to be his new bestie.

“It stands for big, fat friend” he said through giggle fits of laughter. 

”Wait, what?” I questioned. 

“It’s from the penguin movie!” he exclaimed. 

Right, ok. Time to run interference. 

Let me back up.

Nobody does slapstick comedy like Jim Carrey. His spastic style coupled with his stand up comedic roots make for some of the most hilarious movie scenes of our time. 

My son’s class watched Carrey star in the movie, Mr Popper’s Penguins before their class went to see the play*. 

In one scene, one of Carrey’s “kids” is talking about BFF’s and Carrey chimes in saying that it stands for big fat friend. Cue the 6 year old crew in hysterics. 

When I asked why this...

My friend came to me in a panic, unsure of how to respond to her eight year old daughter. 

The night before, her daughter had looked in the mirror and asked her mom if she was fat. It's hard to not feel like this is a loaded statement as every woman in America has been brainwashed into diet culture's code of ethics that states every good woman should do her part to stay, maintain or at the very least throw spaghetti at the wall until she finds a weight loss gimmick that sticks. 

My friend, stunned by her daughter's comment replied like you probably would have....

"No, no, no honey, you're not fat. You're beautiful and strong and just look at all the things you can do!" 

I would've said the same thing until I knew better. 

Assuring this sweet girl that she's not fat actually just reinforced the idea that fat is bad and thin is good. My book takes a deeper dive into how to respond to these comments, especially if the comment is coming from a...

Surrounded by light up plastic snowflakes with the smell of popcorn lingering in the air, my kids and I sat in anticipation of the Disney on Ice (Frozen & Encanto) debut. Kids clad in Elsa, Anna and Mirabel costumes waved excitedly as Olaf took the ice. The Frozen story was underway when Elsa and Anna popped up on a side platform as they got ready for Elsa's coronation.  

“Anna, you look beautiful” Elsa proclaimed. 

A giddy Anna said, “You look beautifuller….I mean you don’t look FULLER…..you just look very beautiful”. 

An awkward moment of silence just long enough for kids to understand that looking FULLER is not a good thing cut right through the popcorn haze. 

Damn you, Disney on Ice. I’m disappointed to say the least, especially amidst the absolutely awful new AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) guidelines that recommend medication, weight loss through dieting and...

Our kitchen table was full of our six kids plus two more of the kid's friends. A summer storm had turned the skies a dark gray with lightning flickering in the distance. We all sat cozy inside and, despite summer dinners being tough to get on the table, tonight we had even managed to cook some market fresh corn on the cob. 

As dinner came to a close, our kids started asking what was available to quench their sweet tooth.

"You guys have sugar in your house?" gasped one of our guests. 

The other guest chimed in with "we literally keep no sweets in the house and the closest thing we have to something sweet is powdered sugar. If we bought anything sweet, it would be gone in one hour". 

Both kids lamented about their moms being "bad" shoppers and always wished their dads would go to the store since they bought more of the "good" stuff. 

I was happy to give the kids Bark thins (thank you, Costco) and everyone left the table happy and satisfied. 

Of course, I...