Raising a confident child, my way
I'm a little outspoken and ever so slightly crazy on the best of days and yes, this seems to have been imparted to my daughter.
Take the other morning, for example. As she sings me a song using a tumbler as a microphone for better effect, she belted out the nonsensical lyrics of her latest 'hit tune' at the top of her lungs as if performing to a stage of adoring fans. I am of course her number one fan so when she finished I gave a round of applause. I told her how talented she is and, expecting her to smile and laugh, she simply looked back at me, smiled, tilted her head to the side and said quite matter of fact, "Yes, I know. I'm also beautiful." Fair play.
With that in mind, I don't want to breed some precious and precocious Justin Bieber, crowd spitting, monkey keeping, self-absorbed, ridiculous hair, snotty type kid. He may have money but if my daughter were to bring something like that home, he wouldn't even make it past the front door mat.
All I can hope is that with gentle guidance she will grow to be a confident, caring and compassionate little girl with all of those traits following through into adulthood. I never wanted a wall flower as a child yet I also don't want to raise a child that others shy away from because their character is simply too over-powering.
I'm sure my fears are the same as most parents. We are all trying to do the best with the knowledge we have, instilling what we deem to be good habits and mannerisms that will lead them on to being half decent adults. There must be a right and wrong way of doing this, of course, but as everyone has their own way, some dictatorial and others more passive, I can accept that as long as the end result is the same.
If I'm blessed with grandchildren one day and my daughter looks back on her childhood and thanks me for bringing her up in a certain way, guiding her as best I can, then I'll rest easy knowing I didn't do too badly in my job as a mum to a child of a very modern generation.
Ally x
Take the other morning, for example. As she sings me a song using a tumbler as a microphone for better effect, she belted out the nonsensical lyrics of her latest 'hit tune' at the top of her lungs as if performing to a stage of adoring fans. I am of course her number one fan so when she finished I gave a round of applause. I told her how talented she is and, expecting her to smile and laugh, she simply looked back at me, smiled, tilted her head to the side and said quite matter of fact, "Yes, I know. I'm also beautiful." Fair play.
With that in mind, I don't want to breed some precious and precocious Justin Bieber, crowd spitting, monkey keeping, self-absorbed, ridiculous hair, snotty type kid. He may have money but if my daughter were to bring something like that home, he wouldn't even make it past the front door mat.
All I can hope is that with gentle guidance she will grow to be a confident, caring and compassionate little girl with all of those traits following through into adulthood. I never wanted a wall flower as a child yet I also don't want to raise a child that others shy away from because their character is simply too over-powering.
I'm sure my fears are the same as most parents. We are all trying to do the best with the knowledge we have, instilling what we deem to be good habits and mannerisms that will lead them on to being half decent adults. There must be a right and wrong way of doing this, of course, but as everyone has their own way, some dictatorial and others more passive, I can accept that as long as the end result is the same.
If I'm blessed with grandchildren one day and my daughter looks back on her childhood and thanks me for bringing her up in a certain way, guiding her as best I can, then I'll rest easy knowing I didn't do too badly in my job as a mum to a child of a very modern generation.
Ally x
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