Facing My Body Image Truths. My Latest on Catholicmom.com

I’ll never forget the first time it happened.

My husband and I had loaded up with film for our camera, and taken our young family  to the park for some pictures. This was an expensive undertaking for us at the time, and one that we didn’t budget for very often. I was hoping that somewhere in all of those photographs, I would find a few perfect pictures that captured the cuteness of our little kids.

But when I got my pictures back from the drug store, I was stunned to see something unusual in a few of the pictures. There was a stocky woman in shorts, with varicose veins and a bulging stomach who appeared randomly in the photos, usually trying to prop the infant up, or arranging one of the other little boys. I was incensed!  Who was the woman? Why hadn’t I noticed her at the park? And how dare she touch my children?

That’s when it occurred to me that the woman in these pictures was me.