I recently found myself acting like a 6 year old, and not in a run-around-the-yard-barefoot, happy-go-lucky kind of way. It was more of a “but-you-started-it” shouting match kind of way. Needless to say, it wasn’t my proudest parenting moment. by Molly Mills 2 min read
I’m a single dad to a 14 year old who takes 2 hours to get ready every morning. There’s an oil and steam ritual she must do daily, and then hair styling and makeup… She told me, “You just don’t understand, I’m not pretty. I have to do all this.” and now I don’t know what to do or say. She’s very pretty; her aunts and grandmother say so too. I’m worried she’s got a very unrealistic view of herself and it will undermine her self-esteem in the long run. Help? 4 min read
Why We Should Let Our Kids Fail
Samantha understands but warns against the tendency parents have to shelter their children from failure.
As parents, our natural instinct is to protect our children from harm, disappointment and failure. But doing so is not always in our kids’ best interests. When my daughter was in fourth grade, her basketball team was on a 0-7-game losing streak with no apparent signs of a mid-season comeback. After a particularly dreadful loss, …
Mean Girls in Kindergarten? Are You Kidding Me?
Samantha Parent Walravens realizes how early drama can arise among young girls, especially in school.
I have four kids – my boys are 15 and 13, my girls are 9 and 5. While my boys nearly drove me into the ground as toddlers with their endless physical energy and constant running around, the girls are currently winning the race to dig me an early grave with their ongoing girl drama and emotional highs and lows.
If I had to choose, I’d take the physical exhaustion of boys over the emotional exhaustion of girls ANY DAY.
I wasn’t expecting the girl drama to start at such a young age, however. This morning, my 5-year-old stopped me at the door of her Kindergarten classroom with tears running down her chubby little cheeks. She told me that she was scared to go to school, that her friends weren’t being nice, and that she wanted to go home.
“Teaching Our Girls To Become Self Advocates: Important And Totally Necessary”
Spencer Wollan explores the stigmas between boys and girls as the “easier” gender.
The company I work for throws huge birthday parties for kids. Every weekend we travel to a new place, set up activities, and run around for a few hours with kids in elementary school. After we arrive and set up all of our equipment, we have a meeting. The meeting consists mostly of our boss telling us what the party is going to look like. I’ve only worked here for a few weeks, and the parties I have done in the past have all been co-ed. This event was different.
The birthday girl, a tall 10-year-old named Sophia, interrupted the meeting to inform us that this party was “going to be all girls!” My boss immediately laughed to us staff, “Your life just got 20 times easier!” At first, I thought nothing of the comment. I smiled and let it roll off my back like all those sexist jokes I hear at school. Then I started to think. Why did he just say that? What is it about girls that make them seem so much easier to him? When can I stop sitting in this meeting and get back to playing with the kids?
Our Soft Stomach, Our Broad Back; Notes to My Mother
Summer is in full swing! While it’s the season for fun in the sun, summer can also present body image challenges. Katie Davis, a GLI supporter and former intern, reflects on the way a mother can influence her daughter’s body image, and why it’s important to remember the amazing things your body can do, and not just what it looks like.
I remember the way your face looked the day I sat at the kitchen table, little legs dangling above the cream carpet, and asked if I could go to Weight Watchers with you. I was nine and all cowlicks and soccer bruises, and that was the first summer I noticed how my stomach curved convexly in my tie-dye one-piece. I didn’t know what exactly Weight Watchers was, but I knew it had to do with food, and fractions, and that the way you spoke about it made it sometimes sound like summer camp, and sometimes like a trip to the principal’s office. But mostly it seemed like magic, all of the measuring cups and point charts and little books filled with scribbles casting a spell on you well past when the dishes were done.
Ever since I began creating lists of good books for girls like this one, people have been recommending that I read Lauren Tarshis’ book Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree. I finally got around to it, and I’m so glad that I did. This book now figures among my favorites for upper grade and middle school …
Ever since my daughter Winnie was born three years ago, I’ve been struggling with princesses. Well, with princesses and with all that seems to come along with them. The emphasis on beauty, the focus on being desired/getting married, the assertion that girls can’t (or wouldn’t want to) do the same things as boys. And, the …
I have a love/hate relationship with princesses. I love them out of nostalgia. As a child, my cousin, sister, friends, and I spent many afternoons at the public pool swimming around pretending to be mermaids. We were all Ariels – a legion of them – singing, undulating our “tails,” and whipping our long, wet hair …
Of all the changes that I experienced when I became a mother, there is one that remains difficult to swallow: the astounding number of catalogues arriving daily in my mailbox like spaghetti from Strega Nona’s pot. At first, it’s sort of neat – Ooh! Fun things to buy the baby! – and, then, it quickly …
