10/23/2019
We’ve never posted discussions here at but we feel now is as good of a time as ever to discuss this elephant that rears it’s big ol’ head in many different rooms. Mommies of beautiful brown skinned girls, we need you to weigh in! 👧🏽🦄✨
Earlier today, I was talking to a girlfriend of mine who’s parenting style is very akin to, yet noticeably different than mine. We were discussing representation and what it means to us to make sure our daughters are self aware and unashamed of the skin they’re in. I was telling my friend of how I’m so selective of what my daughter watches to the point where at the tender age of 5, she knows not to even ask me if she can watch movies/videos with all white casts (like Frozen or Jojo Siwa) or ask for white dolls. I was sharing with my friend that while I think it’s imperative that my daughter celebrates and embraces her blackness, I’m fearful that I may inadvertently cause her to develop a complex by keeping her from the things that she doesn’t necessarily identify with. My friend shared with me that while she does allow her daughter the autonomy to watch what she chooses because she wants her to be exposed to diversity, she also worries that she too may cause her to develop a complex. I think what we discovered today is there is no right or wrong method to promoting self awareness in our girls. We simply must provide them with all the tools and knowledge that we did or didn’t have coming up and trust that our message doesn’t get lost in translation. This is what we deduced but we’d like to hear from you moms. Is there a right or wrong way? At what point are we doing too much or maybe not enough? Is there a happy medium? How do we find it? We’d like to hear from you in the comments! 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
