IF IT ISN´T FOR US, LET'S DO IT FOR OUR CHILDREN

Women who have children under our care, worry a lot about their education, and we feel bad a lot of times when we cannot spend as much time as we would like, with them.

Nowadays, many women work and they can see their children very little during the workweek. Of course, children, and us as well, would like to spend more time together. 

And here we can make our first reflection: It is more important to spend less time with them but with quality, than more time with a poor quality.

It is fine that we should worry about their going to a good school, that they do not watch too much TV, etc. but we already know that their best education is our own example. It is useless to tell a kid not to watch too much TV when we spend hours and hours in front of it watching it; it is useless to teach them not to lie if they see us lying; it is useless to tell them not to be afraid if they see we are afraid in our relationship.

And one thing we should never neglect is to teach them respect. Respect of everything, of course, but to teach them to always treat women with respect. And to do that we must first respect ourselves; and secondly, we must not admit lacks of respect from others. Of course, they must see us with a respectful attitude towards the rest. Only this way the word “respect” will not be an empty word.

Another feminine issue to teach (with our example if possible) is education: let them see us study, get interested about things, show curiosity, and not abandon ourselves to the comfort of what we already know… If we give our daughters that example, if they see that we grow in our vocation, that we try to be happy and don’t dramatize situations, probably when they grow up, this examples would have grown inside them, and the change will be a real one.

If we are women who think ourselves as inferior, if we value ourselves in the way a man values us; if we believe we are only a sexual object and our beauty sense is only focused on attracting the opposite sex; we change very frequently of partners and we loose our identity in the process… if we keep with this behavior patterns still so common, it is very likely that our daughters will grow up to become this kind of women. And how could they be different if we are their role models? How can they become liberated women if they don’t know what that means?

Our boys will also grow up thinking that this is the way a woman should act, and they will not tolerate that their partner has her own dreams and independence.

Today, us, women, have the responsibility to make changes in our thoughts and attitudes. It is imperious that we study, that we develop ourselves, that we value ourselves, that we are informed so we can make a real change in our patriarchal society. A change without violence, a change aimed to have a better co-existence.

We know it is hard to change behavior patters that seem engraved in our genes. But we have to make an effort. If we keep in mind that our children’s future depends on that change, we are sure this effort will be easier.

Besides, remember we are all mothers just because we are women; the responsibility of this change is not only for those who have offspring.