What Does Your Daughter Know?
Way earlier than I am sure she ever thought, my mom died. She was 46. I was 13. And there was so much I did not yet know. Thankfully, I’d had a few periods, so my mom had had that conversation with me but how about the other stuff: sex? my first date? Relationships? self-care? family care? …the list goes on. My mom was a very nurturing mom and homemaker, so she taught by example, more than anything. But there were still many conversations left to be had. My Mother and me, circa 1983 My dad did his best, but his masculine energy (and inexperience with raising a teenage daughter alone) was way too high for him to be of any help in the areas I needed him to be. I think single parents can raise healthy children just fine, but gaps in the child’s learning are to be expected. Which is fine, since there is a thing children can do for themselves as adults called “re-parenting”. Anyway, once my mom was gone, there was only silence. And the teaching that she was maybe going to start wit