The following is a guest post from momAgendaCOMM blogger Beth Anne Ballance.
I’m kind of a pop-culture nerd, especially when it comes to things that should be so ten years beyond me.
Twilight? Yes, please. Harry Potter? Counting down the days until Deathly
Hallows II! Jeggings & tunics? Hello, weekend wear! Fizzy girly drinks for the beach? I’ve got my koozie ready. Cupcakes? MY LOVE LANGUAGE.
Like any self-respecting career mom, I love to lose myself with my inner 15-year-old and although I am thrilled to be a boy mom and embrace the mud, trucks, and hollering that accompanies such a lofty charge, sometimes I find myself yearning for a little girl next time. You know, so I can have tea parties and throw birthday parties full of baby-pink balloons. But sometimes I fear for little girls of the future and I sit and pray that my husband’s coffer only carries the Y-chromosome.
I worry when I see t-shirts for tweens that say “I’m in charge” or “Queen bee.”
I worry that they don’t know the message they send with 3″ inseams. Then I worry that they *do* know what message they send.
I worry when I read Twilight and wonder if my teenage girl would understand that Edward’s a controlling jerk and Bella should have run from that relationship back in chapter three.
I worry when I swoon over Kate Middleton’s classic gowns, but can’t help notice how pin-thin she has become and hope that is not a mark of beauty.
I worry about Ke$ha brushing her teeth with whisky because that’s just not healthy. Not to mention home girl better get thyself to a meeting if she can’t rinse with plain water.
Amy Poehler, of Saturday Night Live fame, once said: “I get worried for young girls sometimes; I want them to feel that they can be sassy and full and weird and geeky and smart …”
I love this quote. I love everything about it to the point that I want to roll around in it and fall asleep for a few hours, then wake up the entire world with it.
Girls today are too biting, too sexualized, too indulgent, too….just *too*, you know?
When I picture my own little girl, I wish for her years of pigtails and ribbons. I hope she plays with dolls far too long and I hope she gets wrapped up in a Young Adult series before she discovers romance novels.
I hope she picks a prom dress that is feminine, and not sexy. I pray she tells jokes and plays MASH at the lunch room table. I hope she sings in the shower, into her hairbrush, in her car, and even in the church choir if she chooses.
I hope that if I have a little girl, *I have a little girl*.
Not a seven-year-old Britney Spears.
Beth Anne is a member of the Council of Media Moms at momAgenda. She’s a born and bred Southern Belle who blogs about motherhood at The Heir to Blair. You can also find her on Twitter.