Wordless Wednesday - Women's Suffrage ~ Let's Celebrate! It has been 90 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote

Wordless Wednesday ~ Worry Free

In One's Eye

The other day at the store, while I was waiting to check out I overheard a 5-year-old little girl ask her Mom if she was the prettiest girl in the world.  The Mother laughed and said, to her daughter of course you are.  The little girl asked if she was pretty like all the little girls on television and the mother said, yes, you are the prettiest girl in the whole world.

I listened for a moment and smiled and thought all little girls need to hear they are beautiful but that mother telling her that she was the most beautiful little girl in the whole world was doing that girl an injustice. Isn’t it more important for us as mothers to think that not only are our daughters beautiful but to also to let them know that there is more than being beautiful in this world.  We are more than a pretty face.  We are more than our looks.   Looks are superficial. Looks as you look at magazines can be manufactured.  I want to teach my daughter that she is beautiful but she is also smart, funny, creative and growing up to be someone who she can be proud of and a great human being. These are things that I think every mother needs to teach their daughter that they are more than beautiful and more than having a great body. Let face it looks can be just that looks.  I want to teach my daughter that there has to be something behind the looks.  There has to be substance. We as women are more than looks, more than a pretty face. We can accomplish anything we set our minds to. We are not born to just look pretty and be eye candy for men.  I wanted to turn around and tell that little girl that yes, she was beautiful and what 5 year old little girl isn’t but being beautiful is not something to aspire to be. I also might add that beautiful women are aplenty.  There are so many beautiful women in the world and that is where the shallowness lies.  I remember growing up and my grandmother telling me that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  I never knew what that saying meant as I was growing up.  I now know that my grandmother was very wise in giving me that advice.  She did not want me to just rely on my looks for anything in this life she wanted me to become a whole person.

For instance, what happens when we gain weight whether during pregnancy or just bad eating?   I have been there and am still fighting those pound that keep finding me but there is more to me than just my weight.   I am more than a pretty face.  I am well rounded (no pun intended) and smart, funny, compassionate, and a very positive woman.  My husband thinks so too.  I feel these are traits that will help me as I become older.  I will still be beautiful inside.  Aren't these some of the things you want to instill in your daughter?   How disappointing if you keep telling your daughter how beautiful she is and when she begins growing up that there may be a girl who is more beautiful, creative or smarter than she is.  What an injustice to little girls everywhere.

The message I have for my daughter is looks may get you in the door but you have to have something else to be able to stay after the door closes…..