# My Beautiful Mommy -Why Mommy's boom-booms are bigger & her tum-tum is smaller **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 17, 2008, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677 "2008-04-17T01:32:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/21 "2008-04-17T17:38:51Z")
[QUOTE=Savannah] …and we’re going to teach you to do it, too–[starting really early.](http://www.phillymag.com/articles/pretty_babies/page1) Double-ugh. [/QUOTE] Oh my golly. I’m horrified. There are no words. My daughter is almost 8, and she’s still working on remembering to brush her hair in the morning. Today I am very happy about that. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/22 "2008-04-17T18:10:10Z")
[QUOTE=pepperlandgirl] The part I found funniest is that it is a [vanity published book](http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010154.html) with no ISBN, no distribution, and no real hope of ever reaching any sort of audience–even if people wanted to read it. [/QUOTE] I wouldn’t count on this having a small readership. Not that it will be the next Harry Potter\*, but the PR machine of the plastic surgery industrial complex seems almost unrivaled in its omnipresent messaging. And this is incredibly nefarious in its ability to condition the next generation of customers. Hairy Potter and the Order of the Hot Wax? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/23 "2008-04-17T18:12:56Z")
[QUOTE=Savannah] …and we’re going to teach you to do it, too–[starting really early.](http://www.phillymag.com/articles/pretty_babies/page1) [/QUOTE] A bikini wax _for an eight-year-old?_ Words fail me. And that doesn’t happen often. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/24 "2008-04-17T18:20:07Z")
[QUOTE=dangermom] Oh my golly. I’m horrified. There are no words. My daughter is almost 8, and she’s still working on remembering to brush her hair in the morning. Today I am very happy about that. [/QUOTE] I can see manicures as a treat. And I’ve given my eight year old her own makeup box (better than her playing in mine - she also doesn’t always remember to brush her hair, I’m not really too concerned about her morphing into a pagent princess). And I can see a facial on occation when her face breaks out in a few years. I cannot get my head around bikini waxes for tweens… ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/25 "2008-04-17T18:26:51Z")
[QUOTE=Harriet the Spry] I wouldn’t count on this having a small readership. Not that it will be the next Harry Potter\*, but the PR machine of the plastic surgery industrial complex seems almost unrivaled in its omnipresent messaging. And this is incredibly nefarious in its ability to condition the next generation of customers. [/QUOTE] And then there’s omnipresent the “ain’t this weird/sick?” news and blog coverage. ---
**Author:** ![Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/26 "2008-04-17T19:35:22Z")
I wish to point out that peer reviewed studies have found that better looking people make more money. Maybe mommy is just trying to give her career a boost so the kid can go to college or something? There are many reasons to want non medically necessary surgery, unhealthy amounts of vanity and poor self esteem are just a few of them. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/27 "2008-04-17T20:43:17Z")
[QUOTE=InvisibleWombat] A bikini wax _for an eight-year-old?_ Words fail me. And that doesn’t happen often. [/QUOTE] I didn’t have pubic hair when I was eight. And I developed really early. That’s insanity. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/28 "2008-04-17T21:33:46Z")
[QUOTE=lisacurl] I didn’t have pubic hair when I was eight. And I developed really early. That’s insanity. [/QUOTE] If I had any pubic hair when I was eight, it may have been one or two early ones. However, I don’t recall having any pubic hair that wandered beyond the panty boundaries until I was at least eleven or twelve. I’m just a little bit horrified by all of this. Mommy doesn’t need new boobs, and little Susie shouldn’t need or want a perfectly neat landing strip until she’s old enough to drive/vote. ---
**Author:** ![Tortuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@Tortuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tortuga)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/29 "2008-04-17T22:51:29Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] To be fair, here, it looks like that sometimes after he performs surgery, their kids ask awkward questions, so he made up a little booklet to help explain it to them. I hate superficially unnecessary body modifications too, but it’s not that bad an idea, it’s a reaction to what happens after surgery, not a recommendation as a standard book for school libraries. [/QUOTE] Definitely a good point, and it’s nice to have a framework for discussion, but this gets me: > [@](#): > > Acosta told Salzhauer that she wasn’t sure how to talk to her son about the procedures she was considering. That’s when he showed her the manuscript for his children’s picture book, “My Beautiful Mommy”[…]The reassuring tale helped win Acosta over—she scheduled breast augmentation and a tummy tuck. In this context, it certainly sounds like a marketing and sales tool to me. And I find the mommy’s attitude disturbing. I think if you can’t figure out how to talk to your kid about it, explain it so a child can understand…then maybe you need to think about your reasons, expectations and the reality of what you are doing. Drugged up rhinoplasty mommy is gonna be scary, no matter what. So you don’t have the personal relationship, trust and communication in place to explain and comfort your child in the face of the unknown or unpleasant and you think a book with happy shiny people in it is going to help? Fine. Good luck with the stranger danger, sex, and drugs talk. “Mommy doesn’t have the communication skills or personal relationship with you to explain this so you can understand…so here’s a pamphlet. And here’s the address to a chat room you can go to if you have any further questions.” I know that’s a little harsh and black and white. Sometimes people dealing with “difficult” topics need a little direction to shape the discussion, but, something about this just smacks of the Lunchable Mommy culture, parenting by preprocessed packaging. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/30 "2008-04-18T00:19:03Z")
[QUOTE=Tortuga] I think if you can’t figure out how to talk to your kid about it, explain it so a child can understand…then maybe you need to think about your reasons, expectations and the reality of what you are doing. [/QUOTE] I was thinking about this too. If you can’t tell your kid why you want breast implants–and I would have a very hard time coming up with a good explanation–then it might be a good idea to examine just why you’re doing it. Maybe it’s just that I can’t imagine explaining that to a child and not having it sound really horrible (absent some reconstructive reason or something). And if you sound really horrible when you do that, maybe it’s not a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/31 "2008-04-18T00:27:15Z")
[QUOTE=lisacurl] “Yes, darling… and this is so important to Mommy that she’s going to put her very _life_ at risk simply in order to look better. Don’t worry, darling, if Mommy dies…” [/QUOTE] …Or just ends up looking like a grotesquely deformed horse… ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/32 "2008-04-18T01:00:03Z")
[QUOTE=Harriet the Spry] Hairy Potter and the Order of the Hot Wax? :dubious: [/QUOTE] {SortingHat]“Oh Hermione…! No more Gryffindor for you. Off with you to Slytherin’…!”[/SortingHat] Don’t worry. Cho will pull out a double-ended Steely Dan to save her… “_aloha-cherry…!_” ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/33 "2008-04-18T01:27:30Z")
Would someone please post a link directly to the illustration? My dialup connection loaded the top 1/4 and then spent twenty minutes downloading the 100+megs of animated ads. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/34 "2008-04-18T02:59:48Z")
[QUOTE=dangermom] I was thinking about this too. If you can’t tell your kid why you want breast implants–and I would have a very hard time coming up with a good explanation–then it might be a good idea to examine just why you’re doing it. Maybe it’s just that I can’t imagine explaining that to a child and not having it sound really horrible (absent some reconstructive reason or something). And if you sound really horrible when you do that, maybe it’s not a good idea. [/QUOTE] Why does Mommy need big boom booms? Oh Honey! Mommy needs them to make her happy. Mommy feels happy when she makes other people happy, and everyone loves big boom booms. And a happy Mommy means you don’t have to stay in the car trunk, or be locked in the motel bathroom while Mommy is working at night. Now be good and Mommy will get you a bikini wax. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/35 "2008-04-18T03:26:41Z")
Reason #7512 I’m glad I don’t have children: zero time spent in pediatricians’ waiting rooms, anxious that my child might tire of _Highlights for Children_ and instead browse a copy of _My Mommy’s Labiaplasty_ or _Daddy’s New Prince Albert_. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/36 "2008-04-18T08:36:58Z")
OK, some people could use cosmetic surgery & such a book would be good for their kids, but I can’t really tell much difference between pre & post-CS Mommy in this book. Maybe if she was shown to have really saggy skin that wouldn’t firm up or a deviated septum, the book would be a bit less bothersome than it is. ---
**Author:** ![Carson\_O\_Genic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Carson\_O\_Genic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carson_O_Genic)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/37 "2008-04-18T10:33:49Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Is that book for real? It looks like a parody from MAD magazine. And it looks like Dr. Michael had too many trips to the surgery himself. How can he even walk through normal doors? [/QUOTE] He doesn’t have to walk through doors. Leaps them with a single bound. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/38 "2008-04-18T10:41:20Z")
[QUOTE=FriarTed] OK, some people could use cosmetic surgery & such a book would be good for their kids, but I can’t really tell much difference between pre & post-CS Mommy in this book. Maybe if she was shown to have really saggy skin that wouldn’t firm up or a deviated septum, the book would be a bit less bothersome than it is. [/QUOTE] Even that’s troublesome though, because it promotes the idea that _funny-looking people are weird freaks that need to be sorted out_. It’s really quite an interesting phenomenon, because it’s a very fine line they’re trying to tread, and they’re treading it most awkwardly. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/39 "2008-04-18T12:09:12Z")
I wonder if anyone has written the probably very useful “Mommy had a mastectomy and may be bald for a year months.” ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677/40 "2008-04-18T13:39:45Z")
[QUOTE=Cornelius Tuggerson] I wish to point out that peer reviewed studies have found that better looking people make more money. Maybe mommy is just trying to give her career a boost so the kid can go to college or something? There are many reasons to want non medically necessary surgery, unhealthy amounts of vanity and poor self esteem are just a few of them. [/QUOTE] I don’t disagree with your facts. I might even like to give a book for that scenario a try: “Why Mommy’s years of experience in investigative journalism are worthless if she doesn’t have the figure of a 20 year old model-actress.” Society is going down a very troubling path here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beautiful-mommy-why-mommys-boom-booms-are-bigger-her-tum-tum-is-smaller/445677.md?page=3)