Constance Hall on Her Daughter Being a Tomboy
If Your Daughter Is a "Tomboy," Try Explaining It to Her Like This Instead
Australian mommy blogger Constance Hall is never afraid to share her parenting stories, both the good and the bad, so when her daughter came home one day asking if she was a "tomboy," Constance had to share. In an incredibly emotional Facebook post, Constance opened up about her past and how the double standards in the workplace have impacted her life and her mentality as a mother.
"A new mother is criticized for breastfeeding in public, bottle feeding, C-sections and co-sleeping while new fathers are praised for wearing a baby carrier that made them 'hands on,'" Constance wrote. "I grew up with a deep seeded knowledge that life isn't fair. I asked people if they thought it was fair, any of it and so many people were so conditioned to our way of life that they had accepted it . . . But I wouldn't accept that."
Constance said that this isn't just about jobs or who sleeps with who; it's deeper than that, and she is teaching her children to not accept these beliefs. "Feminism isn't just for the angry or the political, feminism is for anyone with a sense of justice," she explained. "That's all feminism is, justice."
She recalled that as a child, "it was 'cool' for a girl to be what was called a 'tomboy,' but if a boy was into what was considered girls stuff, he got teased. It taught me that girliness is something to be ashamed of while manliness is celebrated."
So, when her daughter came home from school asking if she was a tomboy, Constance took this as an opportunity for education about feminism, and it's incredibly powerful.
She told her daughter, "No darling, you are a girl who doesn't find skirts convenient with skateboarding and climbing trees . . . just tell them you're a feminist."
And that right there is just the start for Constance's daughter. Instilling these empowering ideas in our children's minds early on is how you raise a confident and capable young girl.
