Tuesday, August 23, 2016

My daughter's role model

My daughter watches everything that I do, say and act. I see her emulating me. It really drives the point through that I have to set an example when I see her standing with her hands on her hips and giving that stern face that I know I wear so often. I can't just talk the talk, I gotta walk the walk. And I gotta walk that walk when it comes to the whole topic of "appearance". It drives me crazy when I hear women say things like "my mother always said there's no such thing as an ugly woman, just a lazy one" or "my mother never left the house without a good blowout and makeup, that was out of the question". Different folks, different strokes but what is fact is that society places way too much emphasis on women and looks.

I so utterly want to downplay that for my little girl. I want her to focus on experiences and adventures and not worry about her hair or the cleanliness of her dress. I don't want her to spend hours on 'looking good' or waste energy on being insecure about some superficial thing that society deems as a 'flaw' today but changes their mind on it in 5 years. No, I want her to take care of herself, to feel beautiful because quite frankly, she was born beautiful as she is and because she takes care of herself and feels healthy.

All that starts with me. I'm her first role model. Those hands on her hips, that frown in her brows, that's all me. These days I don't wear any makeup. I haven't even gone for a pedicure this summer and I itch to have fun colorful toenails. But I don't want my girl to obsess over colorful nails. Because they chip and she still likes sticking her hands in her mouth at times to be like her baby brother. Instead, I make sure she sees me taking care of my skin every day with a simple moisturizer and toner. I make sure she sees me combing my hair for 5 minutes a day, not just to get rid of the dust so that I don't have to wash it so much but also to stimulate my head. I make sure she sees that that's the end of the beauty regimen because there's only 24 hours in a day! I make sure she sees me jogging, doing my yoga diligently and eating well.

And the irony of it is that I use to be one of those women that couldn't leave the house without some makeup because I've always been conscious of my imperfect skin. But post baby, I've really learned to love and cherish myself. I've really learned to appreciate how life is so much more then looking a certain way and I just want to pass that on to my dear girl. I want to help her bypass years of not loving herself because women are conditioned not to.

So, let's start turning that frown upside down cause a little mini me is watching.




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