14/03/2023
Daughter
Dear Future Daughter, I Fully Expect You to Hate Me
To My Girl,
Where do I even begin? Firstly, I want you to know how much I want you. You might come to find that a lot of women fret over having female offspring ("I can't handle a mini-me," "girls are so mean," etc.), but me? No way. What could be better than a girl and future woman? Women change the world every day, and I'd like to think you'll be the owner of a very large hammer to use on any and all glass ceilings you encounter.
I can't wait to watch you grow. Of course, I'll try to guide you on your way, consulting the experts on things like what you should read, what to feed you, and how to encourage you to be kind and compassionate. But I have a unique opportunity to talk to you right now, while you're still just a dream and I'm still trying to figure myself out.
I fully expect you to hate me, and I also fully expect you to get over it.
When you're a teenager, I'm sure I'll seem old and irrelevant in your eyes, but I know our relationship will continue to evolve, and one day you'll start to see me as your friend. I know I won't be the "perfect" mother, and I know you won't be the "perfect" daughter. In fact, you come from a long line of fabulously difficult daughters, and I plan to celebrate this fact. Perfection is boring, and I promise to cherish and encourage your fire and individuality as much as I can.
When it comes to daughters, I know a little bit about what awaits me. I'm a daughter myself (you'll meet your grandma one day), and I'm still navigating my relationship with my own mother. She challenged me as a teenager, so I preferred my dad . . . as my mom preferred her dad, and my grandmother preferred her father. But when we reached adulthood, we all became close to our mothers, too. They became the person we relied on for everything, and I can't wait to be that for you. I fully expect you to hate me, and I also fully expect you to get over it.
