Thursday, May 15, 2014

Happy Mother's Day!

So my Mother's Day card threw me off with respect to my son's perception of me. Threw me off by miles. I've always aspired to be a good female role model for him (always reprimanding him for saying things like "girls can't play fire-fighters, they can pretend to be princesses"; or reiterating to him that the girls in his taekwando class are good a him). Of course, in return, I was hoping that he sees me as a strong and smart woman. That he sees me as someone who "dresses up prettily" came as a shock :)

We are very conscious of not speaking of others' appearances/ clothes  or even our own, in K's presence. Where in gods name has he then ended up with this perception of "pretty dresser" being such a positive??!

Fathers have an unfair advantage in being perceived as "strong". I probably do as much heavy lifting around the house (and look fitter) but K holds on to the perception that his dad is this tower of power & strength!! Hmmph!

1 comment:

~ a said...

Awww... Don't let that take away from anything you are or do.

I sometimes think we are being too critical in our views of gender equality. If we saw a well dressed man who looked dapper, we wouldn't think of strength as the first adjective, so why would we begrudge someone who saw that in us?

I think the new generation of women don't need to look masculine or ugly to be viewed as strong. We can be both.