Be Yourself

People ask me all the time, "what's the hardest part of having a girl?".

I could answer the attitude, because lets face it, every little girl comes equipped with one, but when I really think about it my answer is making her always feel beautiful when others may not approve of her way of expressing beauty.

The first time we really had to deal with this was in earlier this year when she got bit by a dog and had to have stitches on her lip. The day after her accident I put her in front of the mirror to show her and it broke my heart when her reaction was to shy away from her reflection.

That moment made me realize the emphasis that the world puts on outside appearances and beauty.

It made me realize that one day there might be someone who makes my little girl feel like she is not as breath taking as her momma tells her she is.

And it also put this lady's defense on alert.

For her to know at such a young age that there was something wrong with the way she looked, and hide her face from anyone who tried to see was a wake up call for me.

I now know that she is her own person, even if it is a little one, and there are already certain things that make her feel beautiful and things that don't. I then decided to let her have a say so in daily attire, with some supervision of course :).

We have gone from girly sandals to tennis shoes, fancy bows to none at all or even fancier in some cases, twirly dresses almost every day, and solid colors to rainbow toes.

Yes, I may get some disapproving looks when we walk through CVS and it looks like my child got dressed in the dark, but watching her walk around in confidence with a big smile makes it every bit worth it.

I'm not claiming that she will never have to deal with people making fun of the way she is or dresses but as long as her answer is always yes when I ask if she feels beautiful that's enough for me :)