If you plan to get plastic surgery and don't want to upset your kids too much, here's a new children's book to help the kids adjust to mommy going to the hospital and coming home all bandaged up.
Or, you know, warp their impressionable little minds forever.
(Italicized text from the Newsweek story.)
Written and self-published by a Florida plastic surgeon, this book tells the story of a mommy who gets a tummy tuck, a nose job and breast implants. Before her surgery the mom explains that she is getting a smaller tummy: "You see, as I got older, my body stretched and I couldn't fit into my clothes anymore. Dr. Michael is going to help fix that and make me feel better." Mom comes home looking like a slightly bruised Barbie doll with demure bandages on her nose and around her waist.
(Dr. Michael) Salzhauer got the idea for a book after noticing that women were coming into his office with their kids in tow. He says that mysterious doctor's visits can be frightening for children. "Parents generally tend to go into this denial thing. They just try to ignore the kids' questions completely." But, he adds, children "fill in the blanks in their imagination" and then feel worse when they see "mommy with bandages," he says. "With the tummy tucks, [the mothers] can't lift anything. They're in bed. The kids have questions."
The text doesn't mention the breast augmentation, but the illustrations intentionally show Mom's breasts to be fuller and higher ... The book doesn't explain exactly why the mother is redoing her nose post-pregnancy. Nonetheless, Mom reassures her little girl that the new nose won't just look "different, my dear—prettier!"
Seems like there must be a better way to tell your child what's going on without making it about self esteem. I can't think of one right now.
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