Growing Girls With Purpose
April 9th, 2009 — Media, Marketing and Advertising, Sexualization of Girls, Toys & Games
This would be funny on Saturday Night Live or John Stewart.
As actual marketing targeted to children its disrespectful and inappropriate.
Parents can effectively fight this kind of nonsense. Write a protest letter to Nickolodean, Sponge Bob Square Pants and Burger King and tell them to stop sexualizing girls using cartoon characters, kid’s meals and butt rap. Click here.
April 8th, 2009 — Education, Family Life, Fit Girl
April 7th, 2009 — Fit Girl, Victims & Dangers
I’m a waffler when it comes to the HPV Vaccine, a vaccine preventing some types of the human papillomavirus virus that can cause cervical cancer, for young girls.
I want to prevent my daughter from getting HPV.
But, I’ve read The Handmaiden’s Tale and I’m concerned about vaccinating an entire generation of girls with something relatively new.
I respect Christiane Northrup, MD as the leading women’s health provider in the country. You’ve probably seen her on Oprah discussing hormones, orgasms and stress incontinence.
The Kathleen Show interviewed Christiane Northrup about whether the HVP Vaccination is best for young girls. She also spoke about her book, Mother-Daughter Wisdom: Understanding the Crucial Link Between Mothers, Daughters, and Health
To listen to the interview click here.
As I said, I’ve vacillated on this issue – I wrote one story for it and then hedged and changed my mind. We still have 1.5 years left to make a decision (the vaccine is administered when a girl is between 9 and 24), so the advice of The Girl Revolution readers would be helpful.
Did you get the vaccine for your daughter? Will you? Why or why not?
April 6th, 2009 — Family Life, LOVE & Other High Risks
My husband, Jeremy, and I went on a marriage retreat over the weekend. We left the children with NaNa and PawPaw.
I highly recommend leaving the children behind to spend time dedicated to the marriage and your spouse.
Marriage is hard work.
It’s almost impossible to connect with your spouse if you’re not taking the time and energy to do it. No one connects in passing from one busy event to another.
So many people use their children as an excuse not to work on the marriage. The truth is, if you’re not taking the time and energy to work on the marriage, you’re teaching your children how to do marriage poorly.
Leslie Bennetts, author of The Feminine Mistake, brought up a fantastic point, “Motherhood [parenthood] is a temp job.” It lasts for about 20 years. But we live 80 to 100 years. We’re married for 50 years.
This is not to say that children are not a worthy cause, but it does mean that if we’re seeking our identity from parenting at the cost of all our other identities – spouse, friend, professional, spiritual seeker – we’re going to be lost and confused at the end of our 20 year parental service.
So often couples make their children the center of their Universe. In a lot of respects they are, it takes a great deal of time and energy to raise children, especially when they are very young.
Yet, that’s almost a piece-of-cake compared to the time and energy it takes to do marriage well for 50 years.
One of the kindest things we can do for both our sons and daughters is to teach them how to be married well. Which means we have to take the time and spend the energy to figure it out for ourselves.
Sometimes that means you have to hire a babysitter or enlist a mother-in-law to keep the kids for a well-deserved, much needed weekend away together. Dating is what married people should do.
If you’re one of those people who are terrified to leave your children I have some words of wisdom:
At our marriage retreat we did a low ropes course. If you’ve never done a ropes course seek one out. They are incredibly fun and exciting and also a fantastic learning tool.
On a low ropes course you must learn to communicate in order to complete the tasks. This is applicable to relationships like marriage.
On a high ropes course you must conquer your own fear.
If you have the guts to climb a telephone pole, stand on top of it and jump off – you can do anything you’re afraid of. Really.
Even leave your kids to spend time with your spouse. Even have a scary conversation with your spouse. Even take a marriage education course or get some therapy.
The thing is – there really are a million legitimate reasons to be afraid in this world.
There really are a million legitimate reasons to get a divorce or be miserable in marriage.
Every single person on the Planet Earth feels a very real and definite fear at the top of the telephone pole.
Courage isn’t the absence of fear – it’s the ability to do it anyway.
Jump anyway.
Leave the kids anyway.
Talk to your mate anyway.
Emotionally invest and connect anyway.
Trust people anyway.
The adrenaline rush is worth it. The fact that the fear didn’t control you is priceless.
And ultimately when you do it anyway you teach your children courage instead of fear.
April 1st, 2009 — Family Life, Feminine Heritage
On the way home with my whole family in tow, I had flash of brilliance:
When we get home, let’s go in the house and clean it up. If we work together and clean for half an hour I bet we could have a totally clean house and we could all relax, I said.
The stuff was picked up and put away. The floors were swept and vacuumed. The dishes were done. The toys were picked up. The kids’ rooms were organized.
Everybody did their part.
Then we sat down to lunch. We went on a long bike ride. We all relaxed in a clean house.
