Inspiration! Roundup: Cheer up, feminist child-rearing, and So Much Jealousy

Inspiration! Roundup: cheer up, go camping, raise your kids to be feminist, and run away from jealousy hand-in-hand with Chelsea Handler (that's a pun!)
This Week's "I Want to Go to There":
Magical Star Camping

Cheer Up

A friend of mine posted this image on Facebook recently:


It works! It really really works!

Raise Them Right

A while ago I was with a friend who is a new mom, and she was asking how she could raise her child to be feminist. We bandied around ideas like focusing on body positivity and being non-judgmental of others. Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has us beat, however, with this 15-item manifesto to raising a feminist child.

A note: her advice is geared specifically towards the raising of daughters, but let's remember that boys need to be feminist, too! Gender roles and the patriarchy hurt us all, not just girls. Pretty much everything she suggests can be easily adapted for sons (boys shouldn't be told to do things "because they are boys" any more than girls should hear "because you are a girl.")

Jealousy

I really struggle with jealousy. I have constant middle child syndrome and am always worried that I'm going to disappear and everyone will forget about me and I'll always be in the place of almost doing the things I want to do and that no one cares about me or the things that I care about.* These insecurities, of course, immediately turn into jealousy at the success and goodwill of others.

I don't like it. Thanks to Chelsea Handler for helping me face my jealousy monster one more time.


*Here's an interesting exercise: after I wrote that sentence, I suddenly saw it through the eyes of a good friend of mine. If I were her and I read that, I would be shocked, sad, and a little mad that all the love I'd shown wasn't appreciated. Talk about a perspective shift.

Speaking of Jealousy

This comic by OwlTurd so perfectly encapsulates my inner struggle to avoid comparing myself with others.


Does anyone have a spare set of blinders? That might help.

Pet Peeves
"Peeves make lousy pets.
They're difficult to care for, they eat a lot, and they don't clean up after themselves."
-Seth Godin
Another doozy from Seth Godin. Thanks, buddy.


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