Good Article

Livs and I were hangin' at the car wash yesterday and I surprisingly found a good read among the magazines there (after I read the article in Entertainment Weekly on how the Oscars totally bombed this year--I couldn't agree more...) Anyway, I picked up Redbook and found a "real" article about young girls and how parents can work against the media to keep them young and innocent while they are indeed, young and innocent (click here to read the article online).

I liked this part from it about saying 'no':

"Veteran teachers I spoke with said one of the biggest changes in students over the years is they've grown less and less accustomed to the word no. People are putting their kids in the driver's seat, but, let's face it, kids are crappy drivers. Your daughter may love the sweats with JUICY emblazoned across the butt — but she also may love eating Pixy Stix for lunch. "We've learned to feel that we can't go up against the culture or the peer group," Orenstein told me. "But I really think you can. Your child wants to know your values."

It sounds like parenting common sense to me but I am sure I have given in to my kids' wants many times when it would have been fine to put my foot down. I am determined to be better at that in all aspects.

The ending sums it up well as the author writes about her own small daughter:

"Every morning, I'm just so delighted to see that little face, those strong, chubby limbs. We call her The Viking because she's so exuberant, so gung ho. The idea of her some day comparing herself to Cinderella, or Barbie, or some simpering teen queen on TV and finding herself lacking — too fat, too skinny, too loud, nose too big, lips too small — and trying to compensate with store-bought sexiness breaks my heart. I don't want anyone to take that light out of her heart or out of her eyes. My goal then, I suppose, is to teach her to see herself as I see her, and to love herself as I love her, as someone who already possesses everything she needs."

Maybe the article struck a chord with me because I recently ran into an old neighbor and when I asked about her kids she breezily informed me that her 17 year-old daughter was pregnant. I was surprised, both by the news and her nonchalant approach. It broke my heart that someone so young would have her life forever changed at such a young age--she should still be growing-up and yet she'll now be the grown-up, and someone's mother. It overwhelms me just thinking about it.