I bought a scale yesterday because they were on sale and I haven’t had one since my kids jumped up and down on it and broke it. I found out from my doctor that I have lost some weight and I have been trying to lose some more. Apparently it was very important to me to find out how much I currently weigh because when I realized that the scale didn’t come with a battery I eagerly ripped one out of a smoke detector without my possibly fiery death giving me pause.

Happy to see that I hadn’t gained any of the weight I lost back I placed the scale in the bathroom and forgot about it.

When Polly got home from school she wanted to weigh herself. She is going through an awkward, preteen chubby phase and I wasn’t sure if I should encourage her to step onto the scale or not. She finally did and then announced she was having only salad for dinner. I had hoped to not pass on my issues with my weight and food to my daughter but apparently I haven’t succeeded.  Or maybe she’s feeling the effects of going to school with groups of girls who weigh barely 90 lbs. yet constantly talk about how they need to diet to lose weight. Or maybe I can blame the media; I don’t think I’ve blamed them for anything this week.

Later Polly came up to me and asked, “Mom, do you know what I learned from watching Jerry Maguire?” I was trying to recall when and where she had seen that movie because I have no memory of her watching it when she burst out, “The human head weighs 8 lbs.!” I had idea what she was getting at until she smiled and said, “So, I can minus off 8 lbs. from my weight because my head doesn’t count.”

OK darling, if you say so.