User post: Is this really the message for our daughters?

Now, I don't proclaim myself to be a feminist by any means. I am just a woman. I am a woman that comes from a long line of strong women. I am the first woman in that line to have had the opportunity to go to college and get my Bachelors of Science degree. Something that my mother and my grandmother always wanted to do, but never did and regretted it wholeheartedly. They were women that instilled in me the notion that this is most definitely a man's world and that I would have a harder time making it without a formal education. They are right. As I see my brother just younger than me, not have any formal education beyond highschool, as of this moment, make nearly as much as I do with a degree. But that was a lot of my fault, I chose to go the Geosciences route. And we just don't make that much money, that's probably why the majority of us look a lot like "hippies". We can't afford the suits like the engineers and business(wo)men can.

I digress.

I have always been surrounded by support and encouragement from my family. Even when they can get a bit pushy. If I am happy, they are happy.

As some people around here know, I am about to become a first time mom in March. Two weeks ago my husband and I found out that we are going to have a baby girl..... oh the names, who knew it would be so hard to decide on a name for our little girl.... Anyway, we couldn't be happier. Both sides of our family is dominated by boys.... everywhere. On my mom's side of the family I was the only girl for 15 years, while I had 2 brothers (3 if you count my step-brother who I haven't seen since I was probably 11) and 4 male cousins.

I promise I'm getting to my point.

So I don't know if it's because I know that I am having a girl in just a few short months or if it's because of my own upbringing or a combination of both. But, when I was reading some of the comments here in the Parenting section in the blogs on Pregnancy or some issue surrounding Pregnancy, I saw some very disparaging comments, that I just couldn't believe that another woman could possibly be making. Now, I don't claim to be a feminist by any stretch of the imagination... but I couldn't believe it when I saw, even if only a few, woman making disparaging comments about women that choose to or desire to have children of their own, basically reducing them down to some animal that cannot help but to breed. Is this really the message we want to send to our daughters?

Now, it's one thing to not want children of your own. That is your choice. But, why is the choice to be a mother such an evil thing in some people's, particularly women, eyes? Why must women who do make the choice to become mothers be degraded to nothing more than a 'breeder'? Are we not capable of accomplishing much more than just one thing in life? Again, is this really the message we want to send to our daughters?

I know I will never win a Nobel Prize and probably not even mother of the year... But I know that I can accomplish my dreams AND to be a great mother to my daughter at the same time.

You see, I want my daughter to know, that whatever she decides she wants to be is ok. As long as it's truly what she wants and it makes her happy. Whether that to be little Ms. Suzie Homemaker that is a Stay at Home Mom or whether she wants to be the first female President of the United States (if we still don't have one in the next 35 years or so) or a female Bill Gates. I want her to know that she can indeed accomplish more than one dream and more than one goal, if that's what she really wants.... even if this is a man's world. This is the message I want to send to my daughter.

I believe this because I will be more than just a mother. Just like my Grandmothers and my Mother were and still are to this day.