Raising daughters better
One of the great joys of being a boomer adventurer working on my start up in the content creation space is that I get to work with people who are many decades younger because I need their help in how I navigate the digital world. One of my young collaborators has a little girl preschool age who just had a birthday and that little girl wanted high heels more than anything in the world. And I watched with such appreciation how that young mother found a way to fulfill her little girl's heart’s desire for her sixth birthday by finding a lovely dressy pair of shoes with the tiniest little heel -- maybe an inch but somehow it made that little girl feel like a glamorous, big girl
And later when we talked about it, that young mother said that when she was little, there were no opportunities for a little girl to dress up until they were much much later into their teens. No make up. No dressy heels.
I asked my friend a question. What was suppressed in you that you were inviting to blossom in your little girl? Her answer was stunning.
“Creativity! Freedom of expression! Letting her figure out who she is early so she doesn’t have to wonder when she’s 30! Letting her explore when she’s in a safe space with me.”
Her wisdom, acuity and passion to fight for her little girl sent me back on my heels!
And I was thinking of my own mother as I was having breakfast this morning, sitting outside in the sunshine before getting to my job for the day and I noticed that in my cereal bowl the spoon was from a sterling silver set my mother gave me 60 years ago. We lived in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn where the birthday gifts were frequently purchased at the pawn shop and some poor family had to pawn their silver set, but it found its way to me for my birthday and it’s still a treasure of mine.
My mother had no formal education, but she was a fiercely accomplished woman who in widowhood continued to run my father‘s furniture moving business, where a woman was not welcomed in the Brooklyn of the 1950s. When she came to New York from Canada in the 40s she worked as a maid for a wealthy (and mean) family. Something I came to understand as an adult is that a woman from a background like that would be all about giving her daughter aspirations.
My mother gave me a silver spoon to eat my breakfast with when I am in my 70s and she still inspires me to aspire
We raise our daughters better!
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Check out my Be Your Own Coach course where the REFLECTIONS RESERVOIR module - one of six included in the course - invites you to dig into those inspiring memories!
