I've contributed to the Orlando Sentinel's Moms at Work blog since 2010. The blog is changing content management systems and my old posts will no longer be available to the public, so I'm reposting them here, in the order that they were originally posted.
Enjoy.
Dec. 8, 2010
A couple of days ago, I stumbled across three sentences I'd scribbled in a notebook in summer 2009, a couple of months before my daughter was born. I'd intended those sentences to be part of a long letter for my daughter, in which I outlined my hopes, dreams and fears for her. My original thought was that it would be a way of clarifying for myself the kind of parent I wanted to be as well as something of a contract -- even if just a one-sided one -- between her and me.
I never finished that letter, but I probably should. As our lives grow busier and busier, I don't want to forget some of these things. I want her to know that I hope she'll be an eternal optimist like her father. I want her to know that I hope she'll be a better dancer than her parents. I want her to know that her father and I named her after a science-fiction character not just because we're nerds and we liked the name, but because we want her to be a pioneer and leader like that character. I want to tell her about the lessons I learned from the great-grandmother and great-great grandmother she never met.
Even if she doesn't read it until she's old and gray, maybe it will someday have meaning for her.
What dreams and fears do you have for your children? How have you told them?
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