Wholehearted living for Daughters

I am a mum of three daughters, and I want each one of them to grow up into strong authentic women who are not scared of achieving their dreams, or even striving for them.  I want them all to live their lives whole heartedly.   I want them to know who they are, what they stand for, what their beliefs are, and what their values are. I want them to know that no matter what happens in life – they are enough.

There is nothing they can do or say, that will stop them from being ‘enough’.

They are worthy of love and affection.
They are worthy of a good and happy life.
They are worthy of quality friendships.
They are worthy of their dreams coming true, and
They are worthy of the positive affirmations.

I have noticed that when our children are born, and they start to grow and interact – they show their families who they are without hesitation.    There’s a natural confidence going on where they seem to understand that they are enough!  However, when our children go to school, and start interacting with others, many young girls start questioning who they are, and start asking the ‘Am I worthy?’ questions.  Many young girls start comparing themselves to their peers, and for whatever reason, some lose their child-like self-confidence and self-love, and this plays havoc with their self-esteem.

The age old popularity and self-confidence quest begins.

We were all created unique.   We were created to be an individual with personal tastes, likes and dislikes. Some of us are better at school than others, some have extra-ordinary fashion sense – some have questionable fashion sense, but these differences don’t make good or bad people, they make different people – and that is perfectly okay.

We are all perfectly imperfect – and it’s wonderful.   Imperfection should be celebrated, rather than criticized, or corrected as though imperfection is tied to negative behaviour.  It is not!

When a young girl understands her imperfections and comes to terms with the idea that perfection is unattainable, she is able to celebrate life far more abundantly than her peers who struggle with their imperfections.   Self-assurance and self-confidence in a young inquisitive mind is a beautiful thing to watch.

As the young self assured and self confident girl embarks on each adventure that comes her way, she allows herself the opportunity to try things she may never have tried before, fear may stand in the way, but she has the ability to work through it to make the best decision for herself.

Our girls greatest example in life is their mothers lives.   I am my daughters prime example for their lives.   I have promised them that while I do my best, I won’t always get it right – but I will continue to learn to be a better person, and a better mum.  I also promise that I will learn to let go and allow them to be the butterflies they were meant to be.  Right from an early age, my girls were told that they are worthy of my time.   I created a precedence.  We often have mini dates together where we have time to discuss some of these ideas.   It’s a time where I can put into them individually.

Over the last few months, I have been becoming more and more aware of how short this time in our lives really are.  Our babies are growing up into young women, and they need to know they are enough now.   There’s an urgency to really put into our young kids, because before we know it – they will be off on their own adventures in life, and the time will be lost.

My goal is to build them up now so that they are resilient and strong.  I don’t want my kids realising who they are when they reach adult hood.  I want them to ‘find themselves’ now and live an abundant life from here on in.  This doesn’t mean a struggle free life – it simply means a life where they know that even though life gets hard at times, they have the gumption to get through the circumstances, make good decisions, and move on.

While the late Steve Jobs (Creator of Apple Enterprises) had many issues, particularly social issues, I love what he said at the Stanford University Graduation speech.

This is my advice to all four of our kids, but specifically at this time to our girls.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you encourage your kids to live their best life, and find who they really are?