Heartbreaking Video Showcases What Your Daughter Hears When You Criticize Yourself

From a very young age, your daughter hears you. She hears how much you love her, she hears how much you love the rest of your family, and she hears how much you love yourself. She can also hear when you make negative comments about your body or food or the way you feel as a result of either — and that needs to stop.

In a video by Real Simple captioned, "What your daughter hears when you criticize yourself," young girls are filmed making comments about themselves that many a woman is guilty of making about herself. Things like: "I'm so bad! I ate a cupcake today," and "My diet starts tomorrow."

These seemingly throwaway comments about how we feel about our bodies that fly out of our mouths (often, if you're anything like me) are heard by our daughters, are digested in their little brains, and are becoming a reason for our little girls to question their own bodies. "Research shows that girls who think their moms dislike their own bodies are more likely to e dissatisfied with their own," the video says.

If Mommy doesn't like her body, why should I like mine? Monkey see, monkey do, right?

And this isn't only about the negative comments either — when we see a Hollywood-perfect body on television and say, "Damn, I wish I looked like that," we are still perpetuating this idea of the "perfect, ideal body" and making it known that there is a standard to adhere to and work towards. Therefore, our words about body image, whether positive or negative, have an impact on our daughters (and our sons, for that matter).

Watch the video, which ends with the girls sharing what they wished their moms knew, and consider how your own words about body image may be affecting your little ones — they deserve to be free of body dissatisfaction, don't you think?