Ask Amy: Mother frets about daughter’s alcoholism
– Wondering
Dear Wondering: My standard reaction to this sort of question is always the same: Does your husband imagine that his adult daughters don’t know that they are overweight?
We are surrounded by images of thinness and the shame of fatness. Weight loss remedies and now drugs like Ozempic are in the news every day. And yet an estimated 72 percent of Americans over the age of 20 are overweight or obese.
As you know from your own experience, obesity is a life-long social, personal, and health challenge.
Overall, obesity has been so stigmatized that, along with the stigma, it has been considered a taboo topic to discuss – because discussing it often highlights the pain and shame that some people with obesity internalize.
This is a tough topic to bring up, but if your husband can do so in a loving, supportive and non-judgmental way, he could try.
As someone who has fought your own battle with obesity, perhaps your husband could rehearse a conversation with you.
Maybe it’s time to discuss obesity as a disease, instead of a character flaw.
Dear Amy: “Puzzled Parents” insisted that their daughter had to get As and Bs in college.
I think you were off-base in calling this rule “dumb.”
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