Lots to Chew On...

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Marilyn has a thought-provoking post up with lots of links. She has us thinking about how we affect our daughters' self images for life, particularly with regard to their bodies. In part, she writes:

Watch What You Eat, Yes. But Also Watch What You Say and Do Around Your Daughterwhere Jennifer Huget talks about how our daughters are influenced by the signals we send out about our views of our bodies - that we are the role models for our daughters and will influence their body image. There is a quote that struck me: "But Chadwick notes that we all learn our self-image lessons from our own mothers (and grandmothers) and have to work hard not to pass damaging lessons on to our daughters". The author is talking about Dara Chadwick's new books, You'd Be So Pretty If . . .: Teaching Our Daughters to Love Their Bodies-Even When We Don't Love Our Own

and

An Innocent Word Can Be A Heavy Burden where the author states how a mother's comments can cause a daughter to have a poor body image, and set her on the path of eating disorders. Quote: "Not all eating disorders are triggered by parents, but experts increasingly recognize the dangerous role of thinness-obsessed adults".

A healthy body image is an invaluable gift our daughters take with them into adulthood. Click over and read the rest.

Lent Day 7

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Fast: Don’t read blogsor message boards today. Ask God to make you aware of how much time you have gained and to show you how He wants you to fill that time.

Pray: “Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures. It fills them with light, strength and consolation; and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss of our heavenly home.” -- St. Rose of Viterbo.
Ask God to conquer your vanity and to inspire you to bring calm bliss to your home on earth so that home become a foretaste of heaven for your family.

Give: Go outside and play with your children. Don’t just watch them, engage.

Wow

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This is well worth thinking about. What is Social Networking Doing to Our Brains?
Are Facebook friends real friends? Is Twitter a "really" friendly way to communicate? Are we eroding our capacity to communicate in a meaningful way by networking on Facebook and Twitter and message boards? I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that questions like these keep me up at night as I ponder the answers for myself and for my children. Who should have a Facebook page? Can teens navigate the same emotions and intricacies of friendship that they've navigated for generations, while being limited (or not limited?) to text mesages and writings on a virtual wall? Where is this all going? How is that someone can have 400 friends and still be very lonely? Can we really express ourselves in 140 characters or fewer several times a day? Should we?

HT: Danielle Bean via Twitter
And that Hat Tip itself is a conundrum because Danielle is most definitely a REAL friend and she just got me thinking for REAL via a tweet...hmmm...