Welcome to Part Two of this article! Use it to help you raise an incredibly confident, amazing daughter who will rule the world.
Ensure She’s Media-Literate
Watch television and movies with your daughter, and talk about how women are portrayed. Are the women strong and powerful? Meek? Nagging harpies who constantly say disparaging things to their men? Scantily-clad and servant-like? Willing to say nasty things about their fellow girls? Discuss female stereotypes and why they do not apply to today’s women. Once you point out these stereotypes, your daughter will start to see them everywhere. Let her know such stereotypes are not what women truly are, and how powerful sisterhood among females is.
Enroll Her In Sports
Encourage her to find a sports she likes, and to stick with it. Research indicates girls who play sports develop high self-esteem because they look to their fellow females for value instead of boys. Sports also promote the controlling of nerves and the ability to focus and perform in a given situation.
Don’t Borrow Her Clothes
Let your daughter develop her own sense of style, even if you don’t quite understand it. If she wants to wear black all the time, let her. If she loves wearing dresses and skirts, encourage that too. Allow her to develop a unique style that expresses who she is as a person. Failing to do so is a form of rejection, and one she won’t soon forget.
Be Mindful Of Magazines
Remain mindful of the magazines you have in your house. Fashion magazines may be great for style ideas, but they do nothing for young girls’ self-esteem. Airbrushed, impossibly-perfect, impossibly-thin women don the pages of such magazines, and leave many girls wondering why they don’t look like that. Explain that the models on the pages of fashion magazines do not look like that in real life, and that they are made up, filtered, and photo-shopped to look a certain way. Emphasize real beauty, and try to keep other magazines in your house, such as National Geographic and similar publications.
Make Certain She Knows You Love Her
Whatever else, make sure your daughter knows you love her! Show her as often as you tell her, guide her through assorted physical, emotional, and mental changes, and otherwise be there for her. If she knows she has your love and support no matter what, she’s going to do great things.
Enjoy your daughter for who she is…and watch her turn into an amazing person!