"Teaching Moments"

As most parents do, I look for "teaching moments" in life.  Examples in real life situations can provide valuable insight for children, and 'keep it real.'

This season on TV, I've been letting my children, a teen boy and a preteen girl, watch The Biggest Loser with me.  It's a lot tamer than most TV out there, it's something we do together, and it's chock full of 'teaching moments.'

We have addressed many topics through this show.  Eating healthy, staying active, bullying, stress management, time management, and keeping your 'demons' in your head vs. dealing with them are but a few.  What comes up every week is how weight loss for severely obese individuals differs in real life vs. on this show.  Clearly, if you take away most stresses - family life, work, etc. - and provide healthy foods, doctors, trainers, pretty much anything anyone could possibly need, you will have some pretty insane results (just see any week 1 of any season to see insane numbers of shed pounds on the scale).  Every week I make clear to them that this insane amount of weight loss is something that can and should only be done at this location, under supervision of professionals, and the loss is only by people who are severely obese, and usually their lives depend greatly on this weight loss.

What I did not anticipate was this season's finale winner.  We record the shows, so I usually watch it the next day with the kids, but last night I caught wind that something was amiss with the winner this time around.  Something perhaps my children shouldn't see.  So I did something I don't usually do - I watched some TV during the day.  I watched it without the children with me.  

An hour later, I am still so appalled at what I've seen I cannot think straight.  I can see all the good 'teaching moments' available here, but do I really want to make my children feel like I do right now?

Or maybe it would be good for them to see a real situation where someone has so emaciated herself, on purpose, for the sake of a quarter of a million dollars, that the one thing she was striving for - HEALTH - was completely obliterated.  Models are this thin, so it isn't as though they don't see this sort of thing at any checkout stand at the grocery.  

What struck me so much is that this woman is only a 1/2" taller than myself, with a similar build, but she has weighed in at a mere 105 pounds.  NEVER before, in my life, have I ever felt so tremendously and seriously obese myself, as I do when looking at those stats.  

Is that also a teachable moment?  Is that something I should readily admit to my children?  Do I protect my children from the demons in my own head, or admit that even moms have them?

Obviously, I will end up admitting my demons, and strive to be a positive role model for how to deal with said demons.  I will learn from my very own 'teaching moments' and let those demons out and deal with them instead of keeping them inside my head.  Perhaps the best way to protect your children is to not protect them from everything.  Admit that I am flawed, so they will admit that, too.  And be okay with that.  And let their demons go before they do any lasting harm.

And we will pray for this 'winner', who desperately needs help getting back to healthy.