Wake Up Parents!
I am a new mother. A mother of a beautiful baby girl whose every smile and every cry defines the movement of every cell in my body. Her pain fills every inch with an inconsolable ache, and her laugh removes the slightest grief and sorrow from the core of my existence. This new phase of life called motherhood has introduced me to the emotion called love unlike ever before -something which can be so incredibly consuming, overwhelming, exhausting, draining yet persistent.In this new experience, I wonder, how can a mother want anything but the supremely best for her child. How can she even imagine something below this standard and not work tirelessly to move mountains if she must to provide more and more for the love of her life. And then I look outside the secure windows of my home, and see the gruesome reality that lies in front of me – the life of young girls which is no less than horrible and terrifying. I cannot put my mind to think other than that their parents must be completely unaware and ignorant of a better life that is achievable, otherwise I would not see girls broken beyond belief roaming the streets with smiles plastered across their faces because they think they cannot have better.
Girls too scared to be themselves, girls entirely unaware of who they are, girls killing themselves to conform to societal standards, girls caught up in the vicious rat race of being more beautiful, more powerful, more acceptable, more likable, more of everything they need never care about, and forgetting about becoming more moral, more compassionate, more kind, more accepting, more loving, more caring, more influential, more helping, more peaceful.
When is the last time we sat our daughters down and told them they are unique and perfect just the way they are, and they don’t need to follow the latest fashion trends or obsess over media superstars to become better women, better mothers, better daughters – better human beings! Why are our girls running after degrees to become self-sufficient and self-reliant when they should be working on becoming self-loving and well-groomed? Why has arrogance become ‘cool’ and manners ‘run out of fashion’? Why has healthy eating been mistaken for dieting and obesity become a widespread disease? Where has the ethics, the empathy, the everlasting humanity gone?
Think about it…