Bubby and Bean ::: Living Creatively: Strong Mothers, Strong Daughters

Mother's Day is this Sunday, and in honor of it, I wanted to share these photos along with some thoughts. I recently did a campaign where I was able to choose words to personalize the back of matching jerseys for my daughter and myself. Immediately, I thought of the word "strong."

As a parent, I feel that it is my job to empower my kids. And while it is absolutely necessary for me to equally empower both my son and daughter, I do believe it's necessary for my daughter especially to understand that she, as a girl, is equally as strong as boys. So every single day, I tell her that she is courageous, powerful, kind, smart, and STRONG. And you know what? I tell her that I am all of these things too. That's because it is up to me to set an example for her and instill a sense of confidence that inspires her to do her best and know that she is powerful and capable. I make more than my fair share of mistakes as a parent, but with Mother's Day approaching, I've been thinking about the fact that I am proud of the fact that I make this a priority.

While we're on the topic of Mother's Day, I want to reiterate something I've said here and on my social media accounts many times, and that is that motherhood has many definition. "Mother" does not only mean a woman who births or adopts a child. Biological females with children are absolutely moms, but so are those who have stepchildren, pets who are also their kids, babies in spirit, babies to whom they've had to say goodbye, friends or other humans they nurture, dads who are also moms, and so many more. The traditional definition of Mother's Day can cause people to feel excluded, and I always want to make sure that when I bring it up in talking about myself, that those of you reading this feel included too. (And for those of you who have lost your moms or mother figures, I'm holding you in my heart.)