Mom shares 8-year-old daughter's brilliant response to peer who called her fat: 'This is my body'

There is no one size fits all secret to parenting. Each child requires an approach unique to their personality and figuring out what works and what doesn't takes a few rounds of trial and error. This, however, leaves most parents second-guessing themselves every step of the way until those rare and glorious moments that reveal how good and strong their kids' foundations are. Mother-of-four Mel Watts experienced such a glorious moment recently when her eight-year-old daughter penned an eloquent and classy response to a peer who'd made a passing comment on her body.

Watts — who has been documenting the ups and downs in her parenting journey through her blog The Modern Mumma since 2014 — recently shared how proud she was of the manner in which her daughter Ivie had addressed the matter. "There are many moments I have worried that my parenting style isn’t working, some of my kids are harder to parent than the next, some are more sensitive and some are much stronger in certain aspects. I'm not posting this in a bad way, it’s been dealt with correctly," the Australian mom wrote, sharing a photograph of Ivie's letter to her peer.

"This letter Ivie wrote to a friend who used an unkind name to describe Ivie, it wasn't meant in a nasty way, I think it was more of a conversation but the one word stuck with her," explained Watts. "It made her feel uncomfortable, stand on scales at home, and question her body shape. Now the other child involved is a different personality to Ivie, a little stronger, and has a different sense of humor to sensitive Ivie. Both little girls, and both learning their way in the world." In her well-thought-out letter to the other girl, young Ivie calmly and clearly explains that no matter what others think or say about her, she loves herself as she is.

"And I keep on weighing myself, but this is my body and I love who I am and I will never change it and I don’t care what other people or you think of myself, but I know that my mummy and daddy and family love me," the youngster wrote. "And I don't like constantly weighing myself but I felt like I have to, I'm already being called fat. But I am beautiful and I don't care how heavy I am so please just stop. I don't like it." 

Gushing about how masterfully and maturely her daughter had handled the whole thing, Watts wrote: "I'm done. I have mastered parenting and everything else will [be] easy, right? I have always taught my kids to love their bodies, it’s their only body and their only chance to live a beautiful life. I tell them they need to respect it and their body deserves the respect back. I'm so proud of Ivie for standing up for her body, and her feelings. I'm also extremely happy that the other girl acknowledged that Ivie's feelings were hurt - they were friends again afterward.  She's still learning to write and I’m so proud of how far she’s come this year."

Watts' Facebook post garnered many supportive messages from her friends, family, and followers who praised the young girl's calm handling of the matter. "How amazing that she was able to figure out a way without being nasty to get her view across and to tell the other child involved to please stop as she didn’t like her actions. Well done, fantastic parenting right there," commented Facebook user Mel Hunter. "This is something that I didn’t have the confidence to say till late in my teens. You have been so brave confronting your friends and that takes so much courage. You absolutely owned that situation and came out glowing," wrote Melissa Sutherland. "You are beautiful and you are loved and being happy in your own being is all that matters! You are truly a rockstar Ivie!"