DADS READ: "Dear Girl" by authors Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Paris Rosenthal and illustrator Holly Hatam

Now, I don’t fully understand what it is like to be a girl, but I’ve heard and read that it can involve some unique challenges.  

As a parent, I want to be able to prepare my children for the experiences they will have, for the emotions they will feel, and the activities they will participate in. But I also realize on a fundamental level that I can’t empathize with all of the emotions my daughters will feel, and that I can't prepare them for all of the experiences they will have because I haven’t felt all of those emotions and experienced all of those experiences.  This is partly why I love this book - "Dear Girl" so much.  It provides a vehicle through which I can talk to my daughters about experiences they might have, and give them an empathetic or sympathetic ear to listen to them.   It was a collaboration by mother Amy Krouse Rosenthal & daughter Paris Rosenthal while Amy was undergoing cancer treatment and published posthumously. It is everything a parent would want their daughter to know, and will probably make you tear up, like it did for my wife and me. 


The next best thing is for me to find someone who knows, and I’m grateful that I am not parenting alone. Mallory can fill Ejler and Lake in on many of these things, but even still, children don’t always listen to their parents. So I’m always happy to find some objective evidence to present or a personal narrative to share that might help prepare them for the world.  Some of those experiences might be subtle - like this comic from Sarah Andersen:

But some of those experiences might be sad and/or scary.

With this on my mind, I was really happy to find a book to share with my two daughters that could begin to speak to them from an objective place, in a way they could understand.  

"DEAR GIRL" by authors Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Paris Rosenthal and illustrator Holly Hatam is extremely moving and effective at preparing kids for emotions they may have in the future and ways to start coping with them.

I love this book because it provides a lot of positive affirmations to boost self-confidence.

It is important to emphasize that our interests will change with time, and we can want different things at different times.

I can relate to this, I have a slightly crooked nose, front teeth that don't touch, and a scar on my forehead I tried to cover with long hair.  When I read this, I realized that I could do better at emracing my "flaws", instead of trying to cover them up.

This reminds me of my favorite quote from Albert Einstein: 

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day."

Rainbows are super interesting.  Depending on where a person is standing, where the sun is located, and where the rain droplets are: a person will see a slightly different rainbow, because it is based on all of those factors reacting to each other.

This is solid advice for everyone.  If we reached out to more people that are "unlike" us, then we could help bridge the increasing tribalism in the world.

I think this may be the most important message in this book.  Learning to say "NO" can be hard, but it is imperative to maintaining personal safety.

Lake has been saying "BOOOORRINGGGG" a lot lately, and this page nailed the perfect response to it.

If nothing else, I hope this book could be a place where my daughters can feel heard and understood, if they aren't feeling that way from me.  It won't take the place of parenting, but I hope it can help them know that there are safe spaces, and places where they can get encouragement.

I hope they will "turn to me" if they are every feeling sad or need advice, but I hope they can find some understanding and solace in books as well.