Raising Daughters With High Self Esteem

“A Mother who radiates self-love and self-acceptance actually vaccinate her daughter against low self-esteem” – Naomi Wolf.

A mom-and-daughter relationship is unique. A mother is most often the first friend that a daughter has. She is her biggest influence & inspiration, and almost every daughter at some point in her life aspires to grow up to be just like her mom. Well, that makes it a huge responsibility on every mother to live a life that she and her daughter can be proud of.

While the entire society is talking about empowering women empowering women to live life to their absolute potential, living a life that they want to and that they deserve to, we also need to set up the right examples for our girls to idealize & emulate in their lives.

“Be The Change” for your Girl

Brands taking baby steps like changing the names – from Fair & Lovely to Glow & Lovely and being inclusive about the dark skin in their ad campaigns like L’Oreal & Mac in the international arena is a good start. However, can we moms really rely on these “slow as molasses in January” steps of our society. Or do we really need to “Be the Change” at our own homes and circles of influence and set Self Acceptance as the New Normal?

While we are playing the catching-up game with ourselves, we need to ensure that we are raising our girls in a way that they feel worthy, confident & happy to be themselves.

Inspiring Your Girl by “Being You”

The Good News is that “Being You” – the attitude & value sets can rightly be built up from a young age in our girls. All it needs is an intention strong enough & courage big enough to be able to live your own life as a mom in a way that you want. And your girl will effortlessly pick up these on her way to Adulthood.

And then, what a better start to “Being You” than being the mom you want to be. Not caring about the society’s set idealized Mom image. Let us start with people who judge motherhood.

A right step & a beautiful campaign put together by Yoplait (a yogurt brand) that is addressing a common public debate on mum-shaming. The campaign is rightly called Mom On.

So whether it is breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, a working mom or stay-at-home mom, love wearing Yoga pants or the super oomph Sexy dresses, BE THE MOM YOU WANT TO and Mom On. Reclaim your power to live your life and make your own decisions.

And what’s with Self Love?

Self-acceptance is the very first step towards Self Love, but Self Love is also a lot more than that. It is probably a journey and the most fulfilling one at that.

Self Love is really not about loving everything about yourself. Rather it is about discovering what makes you feel worthy, loved, and confident about your own self. And once you know these, you need to indulge in these practices often to be able to keep yourself happy & fulfilled. And remember, the way you feel most often is the way you are shaping your daughter’s idea of what it is to be a woman who matters.

So go ahead, and live your life fearlessly. Be an inspiration to your daughter. As a mom of a young daughter, the gift of self-love and self-acceptance is the greatest gift you can give your girl.

And the next time you see yourself in a mirror, just remember to look yourself in your eyes and say, “I love you” because your little girl is watching you from behind and weaving her own inner stories!

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Also read:

Raising Girl Child in Gender Neutral Spaces