Stitched across the front of the onesie was the slogan: Daddy’s Little Feminist. “Okay, that’s pretty awesome,” my husband said. We were about to have a baby girl, and we had been inundated with pink, pink, pink, and with princesses. Here was the antidote, available in sensible black or white. We didn’t buy it—we had too many onesies already—but the phrase resonated.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://spectrummagazine.org/article/sari-fordham/2014/02/01/why-i%25e2%2580%2599m-feminist-and-hope-my-daughter-will-be-one-too
Great article. Thanks. My outlook as a father was a little different. It may not have been as "good and balanced " as portrayed above but that was what I was comfortable with. I aimed for not more than two children, and told my wife that I did not care what gender they turned out to be as the basics would be the same. My wife saw to it that the child(we had only one) got colostrum from the first milk. When I saw the navel i secretly panicked , and offered her a car for herself if she would take care of the navel by herself and change diapers and bathe etc. She joyfully agreed. I weighed in on intellectual development , from building blocks stage to reading books etc by five years old. She played games , raced with boys and girls, whoever wanted a race; she swam competitively and she had spiritual training. I took her to piano and organ concerts, and even gospel concerts. She had a huge stuffed green cat to sleep with and a transistor radio to amuse herself. She had to go the sabbath school classes for spiritual training, and she also had morals training. We watched boxing championships together and athletics and so on.By the timer she went to college she was ready on all fronts. She shared a room with an Asian girl who she let use her 'fridge . One night she came to her room late after doing extra work in the lab. Clearly, her roommate was inside, but did not open the door. After some minutes the girl opened the door and let her boyfriend out. My daughter flew into a rage and dumped the girl’s things in her fridge on her bed.She also told her no more rides in her car. Next morning she went to admin to demand a new roommate hahahah. I don’t believe in mollycoddling girls. The reality may well be that women are still second class citizens , but things are looking brighter by the day. My daughter once dropped in at an SDA church . According to her report the church was white populated and the usher by-passed her when offering time came. She walked out and has never been into an SDA church since. I am trying to persuade her to send at least one of her four kids to the church of her youth. I’ll see how that works out.
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