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SALT LAKE CITY — I’m doing the dishes in the kitchen when I overhear my daughters playing Barbies. They have just discovered a secret island and need to dig for buried treasure.
“Ooh! Pretend we found a treasure chest, but instead of gold it has a never ending supply of new clothes!” one of them says.
Yes, those are my girls. I frequently go shopping with a princess or fairy. I know how to speak "Fancy Nancy" style, and how to do their hair in more ways than I ever imagined. When it comes time to decorating the house for holidays or birthdays, I have amazing helpers. Life with girls is great!
While my husband fears the day they will all be in high school together, I'm reveling in the similarities we share. There is nothing else like a mother-daughter bond. Here are five reasons I love being a mom to girls:
- Girls are natural nurturers full of compassion. I love watching my three girls as they instinctively help comfort their little brother when he falls, or help another sister learn to read. As a nurturer myself, it fills me with joy as I watch them help me in this process.
- Girls tend to beautify their surroundings.My husband notices this in the color of their clothes — they are naturally more colorful than boy’s clothes. And girls don’t just throw on a shirt and pants; it has to be a certain shirt or they won’t get dressed. When we decorate for Christmas, I have to assign areas or we’ll have too many creative differences. They can’t just have a tea party without decorations, there needs to be at least a menu, a fully set table and a flower.
- Girls like to talk.That's not to say that boys don’t like to talk, but girls tend to have the need to talk to others. We need to download. I love just talking with my girls. We don’t need to play with toys; we can just sit and talk on the couch at the end of the day. It’s nice to talk to another girl. There are just some things that only girls understand, no matter how hard boys may try.
- Girls give moms a new perspective.Now that I’ve gained some years of experience, my perspective has changed. I can see in my girls things I like about myself, and things that I do but hadn’t realized before. I see my weaknesses through them. I see what really matters — who I can really become and what I really need to focus my energy on. Having girls allows me to let go of those frivolous things I cared about before and continue to strive to be the mom they love.
- Let’s face it — girls are emotional.We are moved when we see touching scenes, even if it’s just a commercial (we may deny it, but something in us stirs). We have the need to connect with others and to share our feelings. As a mom, I can form a different bond with my girls because we are emotional. We like to share our feelings with each other (remember, we like to talk); and because we feel on a deeper level, we can empathize more readily. We can help each other through the harder times, even the stubbed toe.
Camille Gillham is a mom of five and blogger at www.cknscratch.com. Contact her at chickenscratchnsniff@gmail.com.
