Boy/Girl. Blue/Pink. Yawn! Let's Get Real!

My kids are constantly surprising me in opposing directions.

When I suggested to my son that he play with dolls with his sister, he was quick to point out “Dolls are for girls!”

He certainly didn’t get that from me. (And yo, those superhero action figures are dolls!)

Then the other day, he reached for a pink version of something (I honestly don’t remember what it was; I’m lucky I remember their names), and my daughter shouted, “You can’t pick that one! It’s pink!”

And he stepped up to the plate and announced, “I can like pink!”

And I was like, “Yeah!”

Now we’re talking! I’ve always told my three children that just because society labels everything boy—blue and everything girl—pink, doesn’t mean that has to be the way we see it.

The big box store Target agrees. They are going to move forward with phasing out gender-based signage in both the toys and bedding section.

The majority of people are happy, proclaiming this a step forward in the fight to remove gender-specified items from our consciousness.

Some people argue that Target is just giving into the latest politically correct fad.

Come on! We all know it’s silly to label certain toys “girl” or “boy.”

Why would we want to box kids into being what the world expects?

I want my kids breaking molds and being whomever they wish to be—whether it be in pink or blue (or purple or green, etc. you get the point…)!

Minnie Mouse and Lady Gaga Want You to Know They Are Skinny

From Celebuzz.com

If almost everybody agrees that scary skinny isn't even pretty, then why do we still see that body image being presented to us as everyday as the ideal?

My latest blog for the Huffington Post looks at last week's examples of extreme Photoshopping and what it says about us.

Minnie Mouse and Lady Gaga Love Them Some Photoshop

How do you feel about beloved children's characters like Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck being made into skinny supermodels to hawk clothes for Barneys?

From Shine.Yahoo.com

And what about Lady Gaga? I thought she was all about us being proud of being "Born this Way"?

Do you think the Photoshopping of her Vogue cover sends the wrong message?

Healthy Body Image For the Family

I've noticed a change in my energy level since I started exercising with my kids last week. I do not feel like I’m dragging myself out of bed as much in the morning, although I’ll admit I’m still tired—my almost two-year-old has reverted to waking up at least twice a night again this past month.

But when I wake up, instead of feeling no connection to my body, I rise with the buzz of my muscles alive.

It’s barely been a week, but I feel like my new routine has already become a habit. Not to mention that my children are looking forward to our evening exercise times. Even the little one can now say, “Run, Mama. Run.”

Thinking a lot about healthy body image lately and I stumbled upon this blog entry today on Emme Nation: Body Beautiful: Reflecting Healthy Body Image On Your Kids. The writer speaks about a lot of the ideas that I believe in, too.

I agree that the solution starts with me and I think I’m taking the right steps to ensure a healthy future for myself and my kids by making movement an important part of each day.

Improve Body Image by Exercising with Your Kids

Kids pretending to be stuck in mud

My body is sore and happy from my new exercise routine. My body image is soaring because I'm enjoying what my body can do (and not worrying about what it looks like). The kids love our daily excursion into our town to find new places to run and have fun.

Shakespeare Theatre

Our latest spot was the Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, which has been closed up for years. It’s now referred to as The American Festival Theatre when they do some outside shows during the summer.

My dad used to work in the box office when I was a kid and we saw many shows here. For our purposes, we walked around the grounds and broke into jogs and runs.

Genny and I ran up and down these steps ten times!

The best part about exercising with my kids is that I can be goofy and jump and throw my arms in the air and not be embarrassed—I mean, I’m with kids! It’s okay to have fun when you’re with kids! If I were by myself jogging I would not feel so free to stop and jump and laugh.

How my children see me...

Bonus? The kids seem to be sleeping more soundly.

Summer Romance Novel Writing and Exercising with the Kids

Photo of Sheila Hageman taken by her daughter

I’ve been enjoying the summer by working on my next writing project, which is a romance novel. Five days a week I spend an hour-and-a-half working on the manuscript or write a minimum of 1,000 words. This process has been working well for me—I have an option of two different goals I can meet for the day.

I’ve not been doing as much exercise and yoga as I would like and I have been noticing the difference in my body and energy levels. I weigh the most I have ever weighed (except for when I was pregnant).

Body image issues have been floating around in my head as I try to figure out who I am on the outside and what relation it has to the inner me. I’m definitely loving my fuller-figured body, but I’m not loving that my clothes don’t fit.

In honor of wanting to set a good example for my kids I’ve decided to start on a new exercise regimen. My kids joined me last night after dinner by heading down to the bike path not too far from our home and doing some running.

Kids watching birds while Mommy stretched

I was pretty impressed with everyone’s enthusiasm and energy. Exercising with the kids definitely made it more doable and fun. And now everybody is looking forward to the next fun spot I’ll choose for us tonight!

Gap Kids' Booty Shorts!

I learned about theses sequined shorts available now at Gap Kids from Jezebel.

It’s so fascinating to troll comments on subjects like this because I know what I’m going to see before I even begin scrolling through.

I know there are going to be the moms who are outraged at the inappropriateness and other moms who are going to be like—Oh! How cute!

There are going to be those who shout in all caps—HOW DARE GAP DRESS OUR LITTLE GIRLS LIKE STRIPPERS?!

And don’t forget the requisite practical—It’s all just marketing; the head honchos translating grown-up clothes into mini-versions for kids.

So where does the average, level-headed mom fall?
Well, if that mom is me, which I’m not sure she is, I would say what I notice is all my forty-year-old woman baggage coming up.

The first thing that jumped out to me was the owl shirt the shorts are teamed up with along with the tag line—sequins are a hoot!

My mind went immediately to the restaurant Hooters! But, trust me, that’s my mind, not where my daughter’s mind would go.

She would just be like—Oh! Pretty! Sequined shorts and an owl shirt!

And I guess I’d fall into the middle-zone on this. How short are they? With tights they’d probably be cute and fine. But, no, I’m not rushing out to buy these for my daughter, but do I feel there’s some evil plan out there by the Gap executives to over-sexualize my daughter? Nah—probably not.

They’re probably just marketing what they think will sell. And little girls like sequins—not dressing like strippers.

Would you let your daughter wear sequined short-shorts?

Have a Stripperific Halloween!

Is-halloween-too-scary-or-too-sexy

Since when is Halloween the opportunity for kids to let out their inner stripper?


Perhaps we lived in a different era back when I was a kid in the 70’s. There were no “Halloween” stores for buying premade costumes. Either your mom sewed together a sad-looking bunny costume for you or you took a sheet and cut out a few eye holes.

A quick walk through the Halloween store at the Westfield Shopping Center in Milford with my three children was more like a let’s-get-the-hell-out-of-this-sex-shop rampage.

There were aisles and aisles of slutty this and slutty that. Fishnet stockings, stripper stilettos, and every Slutty McSlutty outfit you could imagine. And the short skirts and suggestive attire was not kept to just the adult costumes—no, even the Strawberry Shortcake outfit for a girl had a certain cheesecake appeal to it.

Thank god my kids were more freaked out by the over-the-top grotesque and scary outfits to notice all the slut fierceness surrounding them.

Cole softly murmured, “Let’s get out of here; let’s get out of here…” and I was more than happy to oblige.

Since when does everybody want to pretend to be a stripper on Halloween? And why?