{"id":404,"date":"2015-10-30T10:54:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T10:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/10\/30\/what-i-want-for-my-daughter\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T17:38:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T17:38:09","slug":"what-i-want-for-my-daughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/10\/30\/what-i-want-for-my-daughter\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Want For My Daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\"stuffed<\/a><\/div>\n

My daughter made a nest in the middle of the living room. \u00a0It consists of lots of pillows, tons of blankets, and a few big pieces of foam my husband brought home from work for her. \u00a0(He knew she would find something to do with them.) \u00a0She sits in the middle of it all with her stuffed animals and her books and her cat and plays. \u00a0She plays because she is ten. \u00a0 It makes me happy. \u00a0The nest has been there for days and I think she hopes to leave it for the whole winter and I might never get my living room back again, but it makes me happy. \u00a0Because she is still a little girl and she is acting like a little girl.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I think we live in a strange world. \u00a0A world that overprotects kids and hovers over them and doesn’t want them to walk down the street by themselves. \u00a0But it is also a world that dresses little girls like mini-adults and expects them to be done with dolls and toys before they need to be. \u00a0Where is the balance in that?<\/p>\n

What do I want for my daughter? \u00a0Of course I want happiness, that goes without saying. \u00a0But I also want her to be strong and independent. \u00a0I don’t want her to turn to me all the time. \u00a0She needs to stand on her own two feet. \u00a0If that means she trips over them a few times in the process of learning, that is fine. \u00a0You can’t learn if you don’t fail a little bit. \u00a0I want her to keep getting up again. \u00a0I want her to walk down the street by herself. \u00a0I am not always going to be there to hold her hand.<\/p>\n

I want her to be herself. I want her to have the strength to do what she wants. Sometimes the world tries to squeeze you into a mold. \u00a0Even little girls can feel that. \u00a0You should dress a certain way and talk a certain way and like certain things. \u00a0I want to teach her that being different is fine. \u00a0Being different can be great.<\/p>\n

I don’t want her to be in a hurry to grow up. \u00a0There are plenty of years ahead for makeup and boys and cellphones and worrying about what she looks like. \u00a0(I don’t ever want her to worry about what she looks like, but let’s face it, she will.) \u00a0I want her to be a kid because being a kid is awesome.<\/p>\n

I want her to make nests in the living room and run around outside and get grass stains on her knees. \u00a0I want her to go to sleep hugging her stuffed bunny and I want her to wake up without worrying about what her hair looks like.<\/p>\n

I want balance for her. \u00a0I want to teach her to grow up without forcing her to before she is ready. \u00a0I want to be there to comfort her when she falls but I want to have the strength to let her fall. \u00a0I want confidence for her, the confidence that someone is there to help her if she needs it but that same someone is sure she can handle it on her own. \u00a0Security. \u00a0I want security for her.<\/p>\n

I want wisdom. \u00a0The wisdom to let her be a kid while teaching her how to be an adult.<\/p>\n

I want nests on my living room floor for just a little while longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My daughter made a nest in the middle of the living room. \u00a0It consists of lots of pillows, tons of blankets, and a few big pieces of foam my husband brought home from work for her. \u00a0(He knew she would find something to do with them.) \u00a0She sits in the middle of it all with her stuffed animals and her books and her cat and plays. \u00a0She plays because she is ten. \u00a0 It makes me happy. \u00a0The nest has been there for days and I think she hopes to leave it for the whole winter and I might never get my living room back again, but it makes me happy. \u00a0Because she is still a little girl and she is acting like a little girl. Sometimes I think we live in a strange world. \u00a0A world that overprotects kids and hovers over them and doesn’t want them to walk down the street by themselves. \u00a0But it is also a world that dresses little girls like mini-adults and expects them to be done with dolls and toys before they need to be. \u00a0Where is the balance in that? What do I want for my daughter? \u00a0Of course I want happiness, that goes without saying. \u00a0But I also want her to be strong and independent. \u00a0I don’t want her to turn to me all the time. \u00a0She needs to stand on her own two feet. \u00a0If that means she trips over them a few times in the process of learning, that is fine. \u00a0You can’t learn if you don’t fail a little bit. \u00a0I want her to keep getting up again. \u00a0I want her to walk down the street by herself. \u00a0I am not always going to be there to hold her hand. I want her to be herself. I want her to have the strength to do what she wants. Sometimes the world tries to squeeze you into a mold. \u00a0Even little girls can feel that. \u00a0You should dress a certain way and talk a certain way and like certain things. \u00a0I want to teach her that being different is fine. \u00a0Being different can be great. I don’t want her to be in a hurry to grow up. \u00a0There are plenty of years ahead for makeup and boys and cellphones and worrying about what she looks like. \u00a0(I don’t ever want her to worry about what she looks like, but let’s face it, she will.) \u00a0I want her to be a kid because being a kid is awesome. I want her to make nests in the living room and run around outside and get grass stains on her knees. \u00a0I want her to go to sleep hugging her stuffed bunny and I want her to wake up without worrying about what her hair looks like. I want balance for her. \u00a0I want to teach her to grow up without forcing her to before she is ready. \u00a0I want to be there to comfort her when she falls but I want to have the strength to let her fall. \u00a0I want confidence for her, the confidence that someone is there to help her if she needs it but that same someone is sure she can handle it on her own. \u00a0Security. \u00a0I want security for her. I want wisdom. \u00a0The wisdom to let her be a kid while teaching her how to be an adult. I want nests on my living room floor for just a little while longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-children","category-life","category-thoughts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2923,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions\/2923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}