Comments on: Little Women

By: joel hanes

joel hanes — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:44:22 +0000

While control is an illusion, you have deep influence.
Be an adult, visibly; your own responsible conduct and self-respect will be a standard against which your kids measure themselves long after you have shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir eternal.

Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t like that”.
But stop there.

By: Pandu

Pandu — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:50:08 +0000

I have four daughters. The oldest is 10. We homeschool, and we’ve never had a TV in the house. The ten-year-old is still becoming a teenager despite these precautions, but without the cheap sexuality.

By: KyCole

KyCole — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 14:21:32 +0000

My eldest daughter hit middle school during the Grunge era, which she embraced whole heartedly. She was just never into the whole girly thing. My youngest (now almost 20) was the total opposite. I sent her to Catholic High School. It was small (400 girls), the uniform saved us hours of conflict in the mornings, and best of all, it was very diverse. I remember waiting for her after school and seeing girls of all colors, shapes and sizes emerge from the building. It made me glad that I had chosen to send her there, instead of our local High School full of Ambercrombie clones.

By: phillip

phillip — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 08:11:20 +0000

I was worried the same way for my daughter, now 21. In middle school there was a quick ramp-up on spaghetti straps, makeup, hair, “am i fat”, and such. But those virtually disappeared when we chose “unschooling”, which turned out to be a social group which didn’t emphasize such stuff at all. I’m not saying that the unschooling is the key, but the group of kids around her. She experimented with coloring her hair purple, shaving it off, Blade-runner makeup at Halloween, and the like, but appears to be very comfortable in her skin day-to-day sans makeup/hairproducts/bodyimagedisorders.

By: DaveH.

DaveH. — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 03:54:05 +0000

When my daughter’s middle school principal met my wife, she said, “…G.’s a beautiful girl… I’m so sorry.” An administrator wise to the ways of adolescents. So are we, fortunately (mostly, anyway:). She’s in 10th. grade now; so far, so good.
As for the 12 yr. old… the jury is still out.

By: politicky

politicky — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 01:21:06 +0000

I didn’t think mine was going to live to be 14. Either I was going to kill her or she was going to self-destruct. Neither happened, she’s fine and she chooses not to wear clothing that is not age appropriate.

By: Salmo

Salmo — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:19:36 +0000

My sister moved her family to change her daughter’s life when it became clear that the alternative was a girl whose focus would be sex and social power. That worked.

By: nezua limon xolagrafik-jonez

nezua limon xolagrafik-jonez — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:27:23 +0000

um…perhaps “dangling carrot” isn’t the best metaphor to use in a sentence about sexed up girls reaching for things?

By: lbd

lbd — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:56:37 +0000

As the mother of a 13-year-old girl, I have wondered for years why parents agree to support the purchase of overly sophisticated or sexy clothes.

For some mothers, I think, their daughters serve as an advertisement (or proxy) for the mother’s hipness or sexuality.