Today is International Women’s Day.
Made me think what pieces of wisdom I would give my two daughters around the idea of being a woman. And yes I do understand that as a man I don’t have much of an idea…..But here goes.
- Your beauty is not measured by how you look but by your spirit, your character and your brain. And you are always more beautiful than you feel.
- Kindness increases your beauty.
- Wearing a smile is far more important than good quality makeup.
- Never compare yourself to the plastic Barbies in magazines. Those women only exist at the end of a graphic artist’s mouse click.
- Respect yourself enough to dress with an appropriate sense of modesty.
- People who treat you different because you are not male aren’t worth worrying about…move on and go change the world.
- Speaking of changing the world, a lot of women are mistreated around the world, speak up for them.
- At some point before you are 20, do a self-defense course, which I am happy to fund….its just a good idea.
- When you fall pregnant, weirdly other women will feel an incredible urge to tell you every horror story about child birth ever…..don’t let them. Walk away and don’t fill your head with stuff like that.
- By the way, you will never feel ready to have children, once you are married, have them anyway. I was never ready. Now I wished we could have had more.
- Plastic surgery is great if you are a plastic Barbie….thankfully you aren’t so don’t waste your money.
- Live the kind of life that will inspire your daughters.
- Woman have great instincts, so trust them.
- Allow acts of chivalry. You are not demeaned as a woman if your husband opens the car door for you, mows the lawn or lifts heavy things for you.
- Guys don’t take hints…if you want him to buy you flowers, you have to say…’Buy me flowers’. You may have to say this a couple or ten times.
- Find a guy to marry who greatly respects and loves you.
- Never ever stay in an abusive relationship. Any male who hits a woman is a spineless jerk. Walk away.
I hope that helps my daughters and anyone else who reads this blog.
Peter
You may be interested in some of my other advice blogs.
My Financial Advice To My 19 Year Old Daughter Lakeisha.
Top Ten Pieces of Advice for Newlyweds.
Top Ten Pieces of Advice I Would Give a Young Pastor
Top Ten Pieces of Advice I Would Give Every Facebook User
The 10 best pieces of advice I have been given during my life.
Top Ten Pieces of Advice I Would Give a New Christian
Categories: International Issues, Women
peterpilt 
“People who treat you different because you are not male aren’t worth worrying about”
and
“Allow acts of chivalry”
seem to contradict. In a way.
One is negative gender discrimination. The other is being treated with honour by male. They are very different.
If it is, as being treated differently because you are not male isn’t always negative. A prime example is the Australian Open Tennis where women get the same prizes money for only 60% of the work (i.e. a max of three sets for women as against five for the men).
Getting picky maybe but I’m not into the idea of “treat you different because …”, I’d prefer “treat you properly because …”
As with your “acts of chivalry” comment it’s obviously that the different sexes are treated differently at times (and as a Bible student you’d know [or should know] that God made us different in the first place). The trouble as I see it is that the world has got so afraid of being accused of “discrimination” that’s it’s afraid to treat people properly resulting in ridiculous things like Obama ordering schools to let sexually confused people use the bathrooms set aside for the opposite sex.
I love that you are raising your girls and inspiring women to believe in themselves. There are still so many areas where women are discriminated against, even in indirect ways. It is refreshing to see men who are passionate about valuing them! Thank you for championing women. I believe women are designed to be world changers too.