You always wonder how to make sure the girls in your life know they can do and be anything they want, right? It’s time to flex some muscle and start busting gender stereotypes and help kids avoid them.
As a parent, we always have the best intentions for our kids, but sometimes unknowingly promote stereotypes that can fence our child in. To make sure your child understands they can accomplish anything she wants in life, you should try these simple and easy tips thus encourage your friends, and neighbors to do the same!
1.Think Before You Speak
We need to do more in order to show our girls what is their value. The way you speak about women in your life and about yourself truly has a huge impact on the way your girl views herself. When you give compliments to your girlfriends, your sisters, or your female coworkers, try broadening what you praise in other women by noting the smart comment they made in a calmly under pressure way.
Of course, you think your girl is adorable, and there is no reason to avoid telling them that, she and all the women in your world need to know they’re valued for so much more than just their looks. When your daughter hears you talking negatively about the way you or another woman looks, she’s learning to pick apart her own looks and judge others based on appearances.
Your child looks up to you as a role model in life, so if you want them to be kind to themselves. You can do this effectively by being good at yourself first.
2.Try And Watch Then Talk
When your done watching a movie or TV show with your girl, look for time and talk about what you’ve just seen, making sure to discuss how different genders were portrayed. If the main character was male, try explaining that because TV shows and online videos have a short period of time to tell a story and often rely on visual cues that are mostly stereotypes.
Basically, we should always put in mind that the more we help our girls look critically at the media and come to understand the negative impact of gender stereotypes, the better equipped they’ll be.
3.Show Them How Chores Has no Gender
Almost every household worldwide follows the trend of giving their children different chores depending on their gender. If you have a girl and a boy, your daughter typically takes care of domestic things like washing the dishes and setting the table, while your son is doing more physical tasks like mowing the lawn or climbing ladders to replace lifting.
Change that by putting household responsibilities on a rotating schedule, giving everyone a hand at everything. Mastering these skills will benefit both your girls and your boys, showing them that there isn’t such thing as men’s work or women’s work, it’s all just work! Nothing to do with gender.
4.Let Toys be Toys
Ensure your children get a wide variety of toys to play with. You never know what they’ll gravitate toward or what they’ll invest their time on. Your son may have an interest in playing with kitchen toys because of seeing you always cooking every day. On the other hand, your toddler daughter might like toy trucks because she sees you drive one and likes to create scenarios around the things she encounters in her daily interactions with trucks.
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You will definitely not know what your child might really be into unless you give them options and encourage them to seek out what interests they truly have. And if they like one of them, so be it. There is nothing wrong with a girl who loves having tea parties while wearing a dress, as long as it’s her choice and not the only option presented to her.
5.Plan a Meaningful Meet-up
Expose both your boys and girls to people who have followed all sorts of paths in life. Your company’s engineering department just hired a female engineer? Stop by her office to say hi and thank her for her achievements. The woman next to you at the railway station is a female computer expert! That’s Fantastic!
Encourage your children to ask her about their careers. This helps your little ones understand that the women in their lives have interests, passions, and careers outside of the family life. It will also expand your children’s horizons and show them all the things women can be and do. You can also look for kid-friendly biographies and autobiographies that showcase the amazing and wide-range achievements of girls and women all over the world.
She may not have the opportunity to meet a president or an astronaut in her neighborhood but that shouldn’t stop her from meeting the phenomenal women through her books!
6.Always Enhance a Sense of Adventure
Choose a weekend where you and your child could do pretty much whatever you want. There’s nothing wrong with going to attending a football derby or getting your nails done. Make sure every time (or even most of the time) when you have a chance to bond. It’s a whole new adventure! Grab a rugby ball and head to the field in your local park. Try these and other adventurous activities with your children to bring life and happiness to them.
7.Teach Them How to be Polite and Quiet.
There is a fine line between being well-behaved and being a doormat. We teach our girls in a variety of ways that being nice, avoiding conflict, not upsetting others among other things are all part of being a desirable, adorable, successful girl. We tend not to show them the other side of life where they’re free to express themselves.
These are just a few ways on how to avoid these stereotypes that are sadly in almost each and every household worldwide, hence affecting our children’s growth. All I can say is, don’t let your child get carried away by some of these stereotypes. They will lead them to act like robots and fake their lives just to be this or that or impress him or her. Let your child be free-minded.
I have learnt alot thanks alot