Surely I'm not alone on this one!

I love my nieces and nephews to bits, but sometimes the no-filter mouths of children can swing the biggest hammers to my self-esteem..

My brother-in-law lost a lot of weight a few years ago and he got into this really terrible habit of looking at all of his old photographs and saying something to the effect of, "God, look how fat I was!" So of course the kiddos were bound to pick up on that like the sponge-parrot-hybrids they are, and I can remember being over there one day and I said I couldn't do something, possibly some activity where you need to NOT have a torn ACL like I did at the time, but my then 6-year-old nephew pipes up without missing a beat and the biggest smile on his face asking, "Is it because you're fat?" I just stared at him. I wanted to cry or disappear. But my brother was in the room with us and quickly corrected him with a, "Don't say that, that's rude!" And after that, my brother told me how he'd gotten into a phase of saying things like that and he had even asked out loud in public about some woman sitting in a chair and being "too big" for it because her butt and thighs were hanging off either side of the seat. Gee, I wonder where he could have gotten such a complex from... :\

And just a month ago, my sweetheart of a niece who is now 4, in the happiest know-not-what-she-says way, greeted me and pointed at my stomach saying, "Is there a baby in there?"

And finally, tonight, I was babysitting my cousin's kids and her little girl, I believe she's 5, was talking up a storm and somewhere in there told me I "was squishy like a ball, like mommy and daddy, but balls don't have arms."

At least I've gotten to a place where I can laugh, hahaha. I can't wait to not have a tummy for them to talk about!

So has anyone else gotten accidental insults from a child?

I used to get frightened stares from small children, like they thought I got so big by eating kids. I don't miss that.

I avoided children for this very reason. The only child I didn't avoid was my granddaughter. Either her parents told her explicitly not to say anything to me about my size, or she was one of those kids who didn't really notice. I suspect she never noticed because I didn't see her for more than a year when I was going through my recovery from the hip replacements. When I finally did fly down to see her, I was more than 100 lbs. lighter and she didn't even hesitate when she saw me. She just ran to me and gave me a hug like she always did. I just adored her 'non-reaction'.

Yeah, kids. You would think my 18 year old would have a bit of a filter. "Gee Mom, you are really looking good! Too bad about your ass." Me: "What is that supposed to mean?" Him: "Well, it is still pretty big..." I wanted to slap him upside of the head....

@@lclemur Do your son's future wife a favor and explain to him that there are a few things that it's never ok to say.

Nothing like a 4 year old telling you your butt is big. My reply: The easier to sit on you with