Parents and Daughters

Parenthood is hard work. I say this because I was a handful of a kid - for a girl - to my parents, I probably still am.

So you are a father to a little girl who stands out as "weird" from the rest because she prefers playing with cars over dolls, rolling in dirt over playing with make-up or she likes to dabble in both worlds depending on what day of the week it is...forget the stereotypes and embrace that. She will love you for it!

Kids are not what authors write about in books, they just are. So when they show an interest in something -ANYTHING- pay attention and invest in their dream, or to be less dramatic, invest in whatever seems to make them happy at that time. Naturally, children change their minds a lot about what they want to be...I wanted to be a pilot, a fireman (well firewoman), doctor, economist, soccer player, fashion designer, ballerina, scientist, the list goes on...all sorts of occupations I have minimal interest in today.

Quick example: My parents supported me when I decided to try out pageantry...even though they were more confused by it than anything! But when i made Top 5 in my first pageant, they were just happy that i was happy, whatever they had against me doing this thing in the first place was forgotten. While I was caught up in that phase -I won't lie- I imagined myself going for Miss SA... It had little to do with being in pretty dresses all the time, making the cut and conforming to the idea of what a girls life should be like, for me it was all about what I thought I could bring to the table...I wanted to remain the kind of pageant girl who could still play soccer with the guys, I didn't see room for my kind of girl in that world so it got boring. Getting graded by your exterior is lame, nothing inspirational about it.

For that reason alone, think twice before throwing your daughter into that kind of thing because "that's what girls are supposed to be into". My parents let me do it because at the time I seemed to enjoy it, not because I needed to be cured from being a tomboy.

Give your daughter room to choose what she wants to do. That's the best gift you can ever give her.