The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Other People’s Children

Posted on | June 28, 2011 | 36 Comments

One of the easiest things in the world to do is to tell other people how to raise their children. This is especially easy if you have no children of your own.

Looking for blog-fodder at Google News, I saw an interesting headline under the “Spotlight” feature:

How to Talk to Little Girls
I went to a dinner party at a friend’s home last weekend, and met her five-year-old daughter for the first time.
Little Maya was all curly brown hair, doe-like dark eyes, and adorable in her shiny pink nightgown. I wanted to squeal, “Maya, you’re so cute! Look at you! Turn around and model that pretty ruffled gown, you gorgeous thing!”
But I didn’t. I squelched myself. As I always bite my tongue when I meet little girls, restraining myself from my first impulse, which is to tell them how darn cute/ pretty/ beautiful/ well-dressed/ well-manicured/ well-coiffed they are. . . .

The author then goes on to claim — without any actual evidence — that praising girls for being pretty somehow undermines their other qualities. You can read the whole thing.

Whenever I read something completely crazy like that, my first impulse is to ask, “Who’s writing this crap?” And so I checked the author’s bio:

Lisa Bloom, author of Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed Down World, is an award-winning journalist, legal analyst, trial attorney, and the daughter of renowned women’s rights attorney, Gloria Allred. . . .

Oh. 

Whatever Bloom’s qualifications, she’s not a mom, and shouldn’t be telling other people how to raise their children.

Category: Family

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