Have you ever dared to ask a child "does my bum look big in this" or something similar? If you have, did you receive an honest response, as children are prone to give e.g. "no offense, but yes it does".

Knowing from experience how honest my own children can be, I'm sure some of the responses would make me laugh. However, there is a more serious consequence of asking this question. It encourages them to look at you, themselves and others and make judgements that are purely based on appearance.

Making snap judgements based on appearance has become the norm. Overweight people are perceived as lazy, attractive people as vain, young black males as thugs etc.  Added to the mix is the fact that attractive people are often viewed as good, happy, healthy and successful. The logical extension to this viewpoint is that everyone else is bad, sad, unhealthy and a failure.  As we go about our daily lives, we all look at people and sum them up in an instant.

Pick up any girls or teen magazine and you will not have to thumb through many pages before you find letters voicing concerns about perceived physical defects e.g. nose shape, breast size, weight etc.

The next time you are in the presence of children and feel tempted to make a negative comment about yourself or someone else, pause and think about the wise saying, "if you can't say something good, say nothing."

In addition, if you hear something negative from a child e.g. "my thighs are fat", why not put a positive spin on the feature they are focucssed on like "your legs are strong, healthy and do a wonderful job. Just think how much harder life would be without healthy legs".