I was pleasantly surprised this evening to discover that my post on Cora’s “girly-girl”ishness caught the interest of 14 year old Whit. Hi, Whit! As part of her comment, she said that at 13, she “started to realise girly-girls are almost all alike and it was much more fun to not be so girly. Then I discovered that both are fun in someways and not so fun in many ways, so now I am just myself”.

Whit, I happen to agree with you that I need to teach our daughter to be accepting of others and to choose what is right for her, regardless of whether that falls into the “girly-girl” realm or in the “tomboy” arena. That my daughter is a fan of dolls and ferocious hugger of stuffed animals is a delight to me, actually, as I get to see her developing into her own little person. As my mother reminds me (often. . . mothers remember these things and make sure that we’re aware of them), I was a little girl who wouldn’t play with dolls, who’d rip the heads off of any dolls presented to me. So Cora’s enjoyment of the things that I would have destroyed is an amusing example that this little girl that I love so fiercely may be grow up to be very unlike me. And that’s really cool. God makes us – our parents get to help teach us, but the basics of who we are is this amazing example of God’s artistry. And, in the case of children with personality traits not quite what their parents expected, His sense of humor, and His promise to teach us the things we need to know. (Like patience, humility, and more love than we’ve ever known we could give.)

Whit, thanks for commenting and making sure I stay on the right path. Maybe my daughter won’t grow up to be a rugby player or enjoy climbing trees and skateboarding, but she’ll turn into her own person who’ll be a delight to get to watch grow.