Source: Today’s Parent
We cannot argue that the way society has been crafted or designed , it seems like women get the short end of the stick most times. This necessitates the importance of teaching our daughters a few things. The image the society has knowingly or unknowingly given the woman has definitely forced women to rise up and stand for themselves. Many women are lucky to have mothers or mentors who have laid the ground for them. Unfortunately, there are many more women who did not have this opportunities.
We as a new generation of mothers who are opportune to witness so many amazing
changes and progress for women, we owe it to our daughters to teach them a lot of things.
Here are five things we should teach our daughters.
1. Be your superhero: As much as we love the fairy tales where the damsel in distress is saved by prince charming, the truth is, sometimes Prince charming shows up late or is a frog in real life. Even if he isn’t, we can still save ourselves. This is not to say that she should disregard the place of a man. Teaching her to be her own superhero is simply teaching her to go in and fight for herself, her values and her beliefs. It is
teaching her to not get held back or weighed down by society’s opinion. She can be a beautiful woman and still be a superhero.
2. Being strong is feminine: Most people like to paint the image of a woman as weak and in need of protection. A woman can and is strong, maybe not physically for all women but mentally, emotionally, women are filled with strength that defies convention. While the instinctive role of a man might be to protect, provide and profess, a woman at the receiving end of these is not weak. Teach her to be fairly capable of doing these for herself. When a man does any of these things for her , it will be his genuine instincts coming to play, not her weakness requiring them.
3. Financial independence is not just a term: It is a way of life for a strong woman. It is a pity that many women have made it a thing to depend on men for money. Teach your daughter to work for her money. To understand the importance of hard work and legit money. The necessity of budgets,savings and investments. Teach her about priorities and bare necessities.
4. Teach her self belief: Teach her to believe in herself and her abilities. Teach your
daughter to dream and dream big. Teach her to go after those dreams with
everything within her. Teach her to have Faith and never falter.
5. Teach her to read :
“A WELL read woman is a dangerous creature”
~ Lisa Kleypas.
We have taught them beauty and hopefully manners. We have taught them etiquettes and hopefully housekeeping. Now let us teach our daughters to cultivate the fine art of reading. If you need any convincing then let Maya Angelou and Chimamanda Adichie convince you. As a woman read, so she becomes. Teach her to read books that will form the core of who she will be.
In the end, there are so many things to teach our daughters . Some personal, some general.
Whatever we teach, we shouldn’t strip away their identity
Written By: Priscilla Omoruyi
