If You’re Raising Girls, Don’t Make This Mistake

Matthew Ruttan

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on parenting these days. Makes sense—not only do I care about families, but I’m a dad to 3 small kids.

2 girls, 1 boy.

And a lot of my reading is actually on the boy side because of a great book I picked up on what neuroscience and the Bible say about what your boy needs to thrive. (Blog forthcoming.)

But something I’ve encountered many times relates to girls and is worth sharing:

Don’t make their looks the default way you affirm them.

I have to watch myself too. “Honey, you look so beautiful.” “That’s so cute.” “Sweetie, you are so pretty.” When our default praise has to do with looks, it tells the child that the thing that makes them special or important is, well… their looks.

I think that boys get default praise too. Listen to the way you talk to…

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