8 Ways to Empower Your Girl
In 2007, Camp Kupugani, our Midwest overnight summer camp (near Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin) started with a single two-week girls-only camp focused on the empowerment of young ladies. Although we now offer boys-only, blended (intentionally co-ed), and a girls-only session, we are continually mindful to empower your girl(s). We want every family to feel powerfully connected with their girl(s). A recent article described eight things you should do to empower your girl; check out our bullets below.
Empower Girls By:
- Believing in her.
- Be her biggest fan.
- If she doesn’t think you believe in her, she won’t believe in herself.
- Validating that her worth comes from within–not via performance, appearance, or external successes.
- Express how proud of her you are for the things she does.
- Extend grace when she messes up.
- She needs to know regardless of the performance that she is loved and valued.
- Modeling self-awareness and self-care.
- Acknowledge your own emotions.
- Verbalize your emotions and why you are feeling them.
- Even if you do not know what you are feeling, be open about that.
- Showing her how to respect herself and be confident.
- Be a good example for your daughter to follow.
- Show her how to respect herself.
- Spending time with her.
- Take her on mother-daughter dates (see our Pinterest page here for ideas).
- Use chores as a way to spend time and teach your daughter lifelong skills.
- Create traditions specific to your daughter(s) to help her feel special.
- Giving her space to make mistakes.
- We can’t (and shouldn’t) try and stop children from making mistakes.
- Our daughters need to learn to make good choices and live a responsible life; they won’t learn that without messing up.
- Support them in the ups and downs.
- Setting the unattainable goal of perfection is the worst thing we can do.
- Don’t force your beliefs upon your daughter(s).
- Speaking the truth about yourself and teach her to do the same.
- Negative self-talk is harmful, especially to young children
- If your daughter(s) says something negative about herself, have her say three positive things about herself.
- Giving her permission to disagree and say “No.”
- This is not to be confused with disrespect.
- She needs to know that is okay to say “no,” and that the word “no” matters.
- If she doesn’t feel like her “no” is respected by a parent, she won’t develop the confidence to say no outside of the home.
Source article: Hope in Affliction