Puberty is both a fun and draining life stage we all get to experience. While it's fun to grow up, it also comes with various, let's say, side effects like weight gain. And while that's usually a completely normal thing to happen, it doesn't mean that everyone in a child's life will take it lightly. After all, you are probably aware of the weight stigma in our society, aren't you?
In today's story, a 13-year-old girl started gaining weight, possibly due to the aforementioned puberty along with the struggles she had at school. Yet, her dad didn't let it slip and decided to make a rather nasty comment, which not only devastated the girl but also enraged her mom.
More info: Reddit
If being a teenager by yourself isn't already hard enough, sometimes it seems that some people around you are there to make it even harder
Image credits: Julia M Cameron / Pexels (not the actual photo)
One day, during a family dinner, a girl got up from her seat to get a plate from a high counter, and when she couldn't reach it, she asked for help
Image credits: Vitaly Gariev / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Instead of helping her, her dad decided to make a comment about how she was getting fat, thus shorter
Image credits: RDNE Stock project / Pexels (not the actual photo)
This upset the girl and enraged her mother, as she couldn't believe her husband would spill such hurtful nonsense
Image credits: throwra3232656
Then, when a fight between them turned out to be fruitless, she turned to complain about it to people online
One day, when the OP and her family were eating dinner, her 13-year-old daughter got up from the table to go get a plate. Since the plate was placed on one of the top cabinets, the girl couldn’t reach it. The average 13-year-old girl is, quite obviously, not that tall, so it's no wonder she needed help getting something from high up.
So, the girl asked for help. Instead of providing it, her dad decided to do something rather sinister—fat shame her. He said, “Well, you couldn't reach the cabinet because you're fat!”
That stunned both the daughter and her mom. For the girl, it was the fact that her dad so openly shamed her for her appearance. For the mom, it was the way he said it so carelessly.
The thing is, the mom also noticed her daughter’s weight gain but never made any straightforward fat-shaming comments like that. Ultimately, the girl might simply be going through puberty, which is normal at her age—13 years old. For some, this important development stage manifests in natural weight gain. Plus, the mom mentioned that the weight gain in this case might be due to the issues she’s having at school.
Yet, the first phrase wasn’t even the whole extent of his fat-shaming agenda. When asked to explain his comment, he added, “The fatter you are the shorter you get!” along with openly telling her to worry about her weight “before it’s too late.”
Image credits: cottonbro studio / Pexels (not the actual photo)
This enraged the girl’s mom—how could he say such things to their daughter’s face, seeing how upset it made her? In fact, the girl rushed out before finishing her dinner, which he assumed meant she took his advice about cutting down on food. Diabolical, isn’t it?
After this, the couple had a huge fight over it. The woman accused the man of being insensitive, while he accused her of overly coddling the girl. The whole thing ended in even more tears and no less anger than it had initially. In fact, the anger levels likely increased.
Essentially, the woman couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that her husband would so brazenly put their daughter down, knowing that it might hurt her self-esteem big time. After all, teenagers are already known for having poor self-esteem—and it is also known that their parents’ words can make it even worse. So, basically, the plot of this exact situation.
People online had pretty similar views on this whole thing to the girl’s mom. They pointed out that the way the man acted was how various eating disorders start. And these are despicable mental illnesses that can even threaten a person’s life. So, that was not a good choice of action from Dad’s side.
Even if it doesn’t stir up an ED in the girl, it will definitely stay with her as a negative core memory of her dad’s harsh words. And that’s something no girl deserves to have as a memory.
They understood where she was coming from and shamed the man for being such a jerk
