Nine-year-old boys are asking why they can't have six-pack abs like Jacob from Twilight and eight-year-old girls hate their "chubby" tummies. What can we do as their parents to help them feel better about themselves? I offer tips, tools, games and projects to help parents empower their kids with the self-esteem they deserve. Here are some fun ideas to get you started.

We live in an image-obsessed, fat-phobic, thin is in, skinny jean-wearing, thigh gap-measuring, binging and purging, forever dieting, body-hating society where kids barely out of preschool are begging their mothers to keep them home from school because they feel like they're too fat to fit in. And that pisses me off.

Recently I was asked if I ever worried that I was putting my children at risk for developing eating disorders by being so open and honest about my own. The truth is that they always knew their mom was a bit "different," they just didn't know why. I may have convinced myself that they were oblivious to my disorder, but how could that be true when we'd be walking out the door to go for dinner and one of them would ask, "Are you eating today, Mommy, or just watching?" or they'd shout, "Look, Mommy's a dinosaur!" because the bones of my spine would poke out so sharply from under my skin.

I completely understand the pressure famous moms are under to retain their "Hot chick" status during and immediately following their pregnancies, but how great would it be if they didn't cave into that pressure? Pregnancy isn't a crime, so why the need to hide all of the evidence?

Most women, famous or not, feel tremendous pressure to live up to the bizarre and completely unrealistic ideals of our image and skinny obsessed society. Is it really an issue that Kim Kardashian is comfortable showing off her growing, changing body or is the real issue that we're uncomfortable looking it? I honestly believe that we have forgotten the miracle that childbirth is. Show me a woman who has tried unsuccessfully to conceive, and I'll show you a woman who would joyfully trade her flat stomach and narrow hips for the stretch marks, expanded rear end and growing belly that can accompany a pregnant body.

One fifteen-year-old girl shared that her father will eat the french fries off her plate while explaining that he's trying to save her from getting fat. There are so many parents who believe that they're helping their kids by constantly offering diet advice when they may be setting them up for lifelong battles with food.

As a parent, I'm less concerned with the food that's available at my children's school than I am with the physical activity that is NOT. If our school boards think they are doing our kids a favour by keeping them tied to their chairs and computers, they are sadly mistaken. All the professional and financial success in the world means nothing if you don't live long enough to enjoy it.

The judge has spoken, the ruling has been been made and our right to drink super sized, sugar loaded beverages remains intact. "The rule prohibits selling non-diet soda and some other sugary beverages in containers bigger than 16 ounces." I have no problem with the government wanting to help us get healthier, but I do have an issue with it just wanting to make us skinnier.