How we talk about ourselves and others when it comes to body image can have an impact on our children.
That's the message clinical psychologist Jacqui Maguire wants to get across after a new report revealed the struggles for youngsters growing up in New Zealand.
A new report by Growing Up in New Zealand, called Now We Are Eight, has detailed some of the issues facing 6000 Kiwi children between 2009 and 2010 - one of those being body image.
Maguire told TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning kids around primary school age often think in terms of black and white, good and bad, fat and thin.
"The number one thing we can be focusing on is what's coming out of our mouths and what are our own internal thought processes as parents that we're putting on our kids?
"So if I'm talking about 'I'm going on another diet' as a mother or a father, if I'm talking about the fact that I don't like my body, if mostly what I comment on are other people's appearances, not their talents or their skills or their problem solving, then I'm sharing the message that image and appearance is critically important.
"Absolutely as a parent I have to be really cognisant of what I say and how I demonstrate myself and with my children."
Maguire admitted, like most people, she didn't always have great thoughts about her body image in her head.
However, she stressed "I need to be able to be aware of that, catch it and go 'Jacqui that's an unhelpful thought' and I'm going to shift it before I say it out loud in front of my kids".
She also said it's not just girls who struggle with body image and low self esteem. The report found girls want to be smaller, whereas boys wanted to be bigger.
Maguire said the influences on children include their parents, community, media and their peers.
"When it comes to our kids and helping them form positive body image, which is what we're wanting to try and do, that really is about how are the grown ups in life role-modelling?
"How are we catching when we hear perhaps my kid not wanting to go to swimming lessons because they don't want to get changed in their togs or they don't want to eat chippies at the party because they think that'll make them big.
"How are we catching that and re-phrasing that and talking about balance instead?"
Maguire suggested parents focus on their children's other skills and talents rather than their image.
Watch her full tips in the video above.
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