My 12-year-old daughter\u2019s swim coach body-shamed her for not shaving her legs at her first swimming competition. She didn\u2019t know I was her mother\u2014and our conversation afterward revealed a deeper problem.<\/p>\n
I found Gia beside the pool, hiding under a towel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose hairy legs? Even the boys will laugh!\u201d Coach Emma said as nearby girls giggled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you teach me to shave, Mom?\u201d Gia asked, fighting tears.<\/p>\n
I reassured her that nothing was wrong with her body. After her race, I approached Emma as a parent interested in the swimming program.<\/p>\n
She defended her comments as \u201cguidance,\u201d then criticized Gia\u2019s supposedly absent mother while praising her father.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy name is Iris,\u201d I said. \u201cGia is my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her expression changed instantly.<\/p>\n
Later, Gia revealed that Emma had repeatedly questioned my parenting. My ex-husband, Jamie, admitted he\u2019d discouraged me from attending practices to keep swimming their special activity. Gia had mistaken my absence for disinterest.<\/p>\n
We reported Emma to the program director. Following a review, she was removed from coaching the youth group. Jamie apologized and told Gia I had always wanted to attend.<\/p>\n
Before her next competition, Gia asked, \u201cShould I shave my legs?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want to?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you don\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t win, but she improved her time and climbed out smiling, her towel resting loosely over her shoulders.<\/p>\n
This time, she wasn\u2019t hiding\u2014and both her parents were cheering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My 12-year-old daughter\u2019s swim coach body-shamed her for not shaving her legs at her first swimming competition. She didn\u2019t know I was her mother\u2014and our conversation afterward revealed a deeper problem. I found Gia beside the pool, hiding under a towel. \u201cThose hairy legs? Even the boys will laugh!\u201d Coach Emma said as nearby girls …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25253,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25251\/revisions\/25253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}