I have warped my daughters… and I’m proud of it!

Next week The Harpist leaves on a mission trip. This is the third year in a row that she will visit the kids at the Casa de Hogar in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Each year she learns something new about herself, and about God. And she gives away a ton of hugs, smiles and TLC to the kids there.

SOoo… earlier this week The Harpist was helping sort and pack toys and supplies for the upcoming mission trip to Casa de Hogar. There were lots of little things to sort. Little stuffed animals, plastic toy animals, etc. Everything was great except… she was told to sort them into BOY and GIRL toy piles. It bothered her that the boys got all the dinosaurs and toy snakes, and the girls got dolls and jewelry. And it flummoxed the team leader that she argued for letting the girls have dinosaurs and snakes, too. I guess it is predictable, though, since this was from a girl who has a pet snake… and whose favorite stuffed animal was a dinosaur.

But I realized as we laughed about it that I had taken a great deal of effort in her “formative years” (gad, what a phrase) to introduce her and her sister to all kinds of situations, events, and yes, toys. So when she was curing Rainbow Dinosaur of a “chicken pock” or tromping down enemies with Prince Caspain, I guess it made an impression.

Her sister is no less independently minded, rolling her eyes when she tells us about the girls she has at daycamp who are afraid to play in the rain, or don’t want to get dirty. She has little tolerance for classmates who insist they must have the lastest fashion or they will DIE, and she resisted reading all of the vampire-du-jour series because she thought it was just a little, well, dumb as far as the plot goes. (No offense, Ms. M., but you could have been given a better editor…)

It just drives home to me the little choices that we make with our lives, as parents, role models and teachers have a bigger impact than we realize on our children, and on their peers. That I don’t spend hours on my appearance each week has its own repercussions, I grant you. But I would rather raise daughters who have been taught to think critically, serve humbly and act kindly. And everything else… is really not that important.

Unless, of course, we are denying snakes and dinosaur toys to little girls…

Just proud to be a radical feminist mama…

Deb

P.S. We would appreciate your prayers for The Harpist and the rest as they travel to San Luis Potosi August 4-11…

[edited to add…]
P.P.S. To learn more, please see a video of last year’s trip HERE! You’ll find The Harpist at about the 1:30 mark.