After spending an entire day with my extended family i can understand why the people in the welfare office are disgruntled at times. (i'm not entirely excusing it,all people are not like my extended family) Apparently one of my aunts was baptized over the weekend. People kept referring to it as getting "dunked". My unbaptized-self had no idea what that meant.
One of my disturbingly thin semi-relatives (the step-grandaughter of my uncle) who is missing a front tooth greeted me with, "you're getting fat". This comment sent my self-critical brain into complete overdrive for a little while. I struggled for a response and then decided that she really wasn't worth responding to. Yes, I have a butt, hips and thighs and I do not have a flat tummy. By no means do I have a large tummy either, but even if I did, it would not be an appropriate thing to comment on.
Despite the fact that I have received nothing but compliments from anyone, of any gender that has been even remotely attracted to me, it's comments like hers that explain my negative body image at times. However, I am not going to start carrying around a toothbrush so that I can gag myself and then brush my teeth after every meal (one of my closest friends does this) to measure up (or down) to my idiotic relatives.
Once a year, is almost all I can take from those people. (Except for my grandmother, who is allowed to make such comments because she is ten times larger than I am, and very silly)