My husband and I don’t have kids, so when we hang out with our friends with kids, it takes a special effort to watch our language.  Not that we curse like sailors all the time – just the average occasional adult expression of emotion.   Once in a great while, one of us would slip up.   Then we get the usual protective parental glare and the secret spousal elbowing under the table.    Kids are delicate and precious.  We need to watch what we say.  

Five minutes later, the parent of these kids might say something like “I’m so fat” or “I could lose a few more pounds” in a self-deprecating manner.    Unremarkably absent are the protective glares and elbowing.  

Now that Fat Talk Free week is coming (October19-23), I find that behavior (or lack thereof) remarkable.  We panic when kids hear a synonym for poop, but not when they hear fat talk.  How ironic is that?  Fat talk could possibly destroy their self-esteem and distort their own priorities in life.  When I look at it that way, I’d rather talk about poop in front of them.  

I propose that for Fat Talk Free week, we treat fat talk like curse words in front of kids.   They should not hear it.   Please pass the word so that we can begin the glaring and elbowing on October 19.