AITA for putting my 9yo on a diet and 'emotionally damaging' her?

I wanna say YTA. I see you’re point of wanting your daughter healthy. However I think you’re doing more to then what you’re leading on here. I was a bit chubby growing up and because my mom was an athlete this was not okay for her. My mom never told me directly to my face she thought I was fat, but it was little comments she would make here and there that would make me feel like I was a whale compared to my friends. This all started when I was 8. I was on hot water and lemon juice diets and got a bit of steamed broccoli for dinner. This diet would go on for weeks on end. she would take me to the gym with her and make me go on runs where she would criticize me if I got tired and wanted to walk. I never thought what my mom was doing was wrong but I got scared of food, never wanted to eat, I was obsessed with diets, calories and my weight by the time I was 9. This went on for years. And the day I full on spiraled was when we went to one of her friends house and she told me “suck your gut in while we’re here. This man and his family are all skinny so you need to look skinny” that’s when I cracked. I was 8th grade and when we got home I stepped on the scale because I stepped on the scale and cried because it said 76 pounds and I was afraid my mom was going to yell at me. After that I developed a very bad eating disorder. I’ve learned to manage it now as an adult but looking back at photos, I was so sickly looking and realized how thin I was growing up even though my mom made me feel otherwise. I had the same mentality your daughter has, which means you’re probably saying things here and there that you shouldn’t be saying that are fucking her up. Don’t tell her you’re putting her on a diet. Just change her means little by little to healthy ones. Don’t take her to the fucking gym, take her to the park, run around there with her, play in your backyard, take her swimming. By activity telling her about diets and taking her to the gym you are setting her up for failure. She is either going to go down one of two ways. Not eat at all and potentially become anorexic when she’s older, or binge and become obese because she won’t be able to control herself when she no longer has anyone restricting her food.

/r/AmItheAsshole Thread