Fat is a swear word

Fat, chubby, podge - Banned from my household. Possibly the biggest insult anyone could say to me, or my child, reducing me to a sniveling mess in the corner.

Why? I'm not sure. Yes I've always been 'insecure' about my weight but aren't we all? Would anyone genuinely be able to walk through Regency Street naked and not 'prepare' beforehand with a vat of Slim-Fast?

It occurred to me that I felt uncomfortable using the word 'fat' when reading The Hungry Caterpillar to my son. An old book granted, in the days when less stigma was attached the word, but I found myself whispering it (for fear of hurting the caterpillar's feelings?) And double checking that that was what it actually said.

I wouldn't say I have an eating disorder, I'm not 'bony' enough to give myself that label, but I'm always striving to 'eat less', 'be the smallest size they stock here', 'you ate a banana AND an apple earlier, therefore you can't have this handful of grapes' etc. Eating disorder? No. Unhealthy attitude towards food and 'excess flesh'? Yes.

I don't think its a problem however, granted I don't want my son to grow up with the same attitude towards food, honestly its not a lot of fun not having biscuits. But on the same page I desperately don't want him to be fat. That is no life for a child, and in my book a selfish choice by the parents. Whilst I can control it he eats mainly fruit and veg, wholegrains and whatever Holland and Barrett have to offer - not a bad thing in my books.

In a few years I will teach my son that it is on a par with 'naughty words' and to not use it to insult the cake-fed child at school, whether he's thinking it inside or not. Afterall, FAT is a swear word, that caterpillar may have turned in to a butterfly but he certainly wasn't much cop in his big brown cocoon.