Girls Untitled

I wanted to title this post "GIRLS!" after the Beastie Boys song, but then realized it looked like I was writing some sort of strip-joint marquee. Of course, I spent the next 5 minutes trying to find a title that involved the word girls that DIDN'T sound like a strip-joint marquee and then I gave up.

It makes me grumpy that I have to be careful about how I use the word "girls" in a sentence so as not to lead people to think about naked women.

I watch ads like this and I get so happy:

You know what? My girls may not be a baby engineers. They may love babies and tea parties and princesses and the color pink. But I like the idea of them feeling that they can like anything they want.

I also dislike when totally gender neutral things are suddenly marketed toward girls and women.
Like legos. And nerf guns. And PENS.

It's an odd world for girls right now. There are cool engineer toys for them but there are also songs like Blurred Lines and a rape culture that is perpetuated through high school set TV shows and music and young adult novels. It terrifies me.

I have been on my knees praying about this. The older I get and the more I see the world that my sweet sweet baby girls are going to have to navigate, the more I rely on my Savior to help me know that
A.) It's going to be okay and
B.) I can do this. I can teach them how to sit like ladies and also know that if they don't sit like ladies it doesn't mean they have to put up with unwanted attention. I can teach them to be kind but also fierce. I can teach them to have opinions but to be tolerant of the opinions of others. I can teach them that sometimes you have to have a loud voice to stand up for what's right, and sometimes you don't. I can teach them that crying and feeling are okay and that expressing emotion does not make them "crazy." I can teach them that it doesn't make them less sweet or charitable when they disagree with someone. I can teach them that putting up a physical boundary is okay in order to protect themselves. I can teach them that boys are people who can fight WITH us and not FOR us. I can teach them to love the beauty of the earth, but also to face the realities of this world. I can teach them that while it's overwhelming, they can lift where they stand and I truly believe my girls will be a part of shaping the world around them and the people in it to something positive and moving and powerful.

This post just got heavy but I'm not sorry. It's emotion that has been sitting on the surface for me lately. There's a lot more I have to say (I edited this post like whoa), but I'll save it for when we are sitting in the car and Blurred Lines accidentally comes on the radio. Then, you won't be able to get me to shut up.