For my very first mother's day I received some incredibly sweet cards - including one with very special scribble from one very special little girl. In addition to cards and wonderful treats I was given a book called, "Bringing Up Girls". It's a powerful book from Dr. James Dobson. He spent three years studying and pouring over over three thousand pages of research to complete this tool. It is intense, insightful, thoughtful, heart-felt and I am completely petrified to read another page.
The mission of the book is to give parents a practical and encouraging approach for shaping the next generation of women. He and a great team of experts went through thousands of hours of preparation to give us insight into the world of raising girls.
In the four chapters I've gone through I've already learned so much about how society is so anxious, desperate even, to shape our little dolls into creatures who are self-conscious, self-worth lacking, media-manipulated and highly susceptible to the unacceptable. "Not only are toys becoming sexier, they are also undergoing something called 'age compression.' It used to be that girls from six to ten were the prime market for Barbie and other dress-up dolls. Nowadays, Barbie is targeted at three-five-year-olds. As Stacy Weiner wrote, 'it's goodbye to girlhood.' Writer Bruce Kluger commented, 'you've come along way Raggedy Ann.'"
Let me be clear - I plan on finishing this book cover to cover. But I think we're in the 'shock and awe' part of the book where he draws you in with intensely terrifying facts and statistics of raising girls in today's world/society. Yes I'm a parent now so I need to be aware, YES these things are important and I FULLY REALIZE I can't find the nearest pile of sand so I can bury my head. But COME ON MAN!! Where are the butterflies, bunnies and rainbows in this topic of conversation, I'm totally geared up to hear some warm and fuzzy at aaaany moment now!
Ok, ok...so about that 'shock and awe' - I will confess - I am learning a big lesson.
I'm learning what an hugely significant opportunity we have to shape the way Penelope sees this world, and the way this world sees her. We are blessed to be put in a position to protect her by being the first to show her she has worth, and how amazing and truly loved she is! We have the privilege of pointing her to the One who loves her more than life.
We have an opportunity to buck the norm and give her a chance to see the true joys of childhood and experience them fully without the pressures and weight of a grown-up reality.
By golly - come hell or high water I will protect that innocent advantage for her with everything I've got.
With one eye covered, a glass of wine and a cup of ice cream - on to Chapter 5...
