Being a mother is full of rewarding moments, like seeing my children grow, reach new milestones and develop their individualities. But, as we all know, parenting also has its challenges, and part of my job as my children’s mom, is to help them develop good self-esteem. When it comes to my girl that has a lot to do with hair. Imagine my pride the day my daughter fully embraced her curls in front of her whole class.
As you have probably have seen throughout my site, my girl always wears her hair curly and I usually do as well to reinforce that wearing your hair natural is beautiful. However, she went through a time in which all she would talk about was straight hair, how others in her school have it and why couldn’t she have it. I knew then I had to work harder on showing her what a beautiful hair she has.
Raising my girl with good self-esteem is very important to me; and for me is not only about being beautiful or how her hair looks, but I want her to love herself completely, inside and out. Although having a girly-girl as I do, I knew it was very important that my daughter fully embraced her curls as a way to feel confident and at easy in social situations.
Last year for the New Year’s celebration my sister made her hair straight with the flat iron and she loved it, but was disappointed when it got curly again after we washed it a few days later. On my end, I was disappointed that she could not see her beautiful curly locks, to feel that we were far from the point in which my daughter fully embraced her curls.
In the following months, I continued to tell her about the advantages of having her type of hair; we stuck to only style it natural (no more straightening it!) and I also continued to style my hair curly to set the example. Gradually, I started to notice how she grew more confident and comfortable.
Then, a few weeks ago, the moment I had been waiting for happened: my daughter fully embraced her curls during a class assignment. They asked the class to do a craft with the “all about you” theme and answer a group of questions that included favorite color, favorite food, favorite place, etc.
The last question was the winner and I almost cried when I read her response; it read, “list one thing that is special about you” to what my girl replied, “that my hair is very curly”. I was ecstatic with excitement when I read that, I remember telling my friend Daily from Daily Curlz because I knew she would appreciate the achievement.
Recently when I told another friend how my daughter fully embraced her curls she said I had to share it here. I agreed, it is important for other mothers out there raising multicultural children to know that If you continue the work, even when there are setbacks, you can raise a child who is happy with who he/she is, with its heritage, with looking different, with having a different kind of hair.
It makes me very happy to share it with the world and although I know the work is not done, I’m glad we are going in the right direction.
What about you? Have your daughter had issues with hair, tell me, don’t be shy!
[dania]
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