Tomgirlz Are Everywhere!

Today my daughter and I went shopping. The difference between shopping today, though, and every other day is that usually every other day we are shopping for my daughter (and even if we aren't, it seems to turn out that way!). Today we went shopping for TOMGIRLZ. (To find them, that is). Every time we saw a young girl we would watch her actions and try to find the Tomgirl in her. Then we would match her up with one of the characters from the Tomgirlz books... there are an amazing amount of Sammys out there! Second most popular was Mackey followed pretty closely by Keekee and then the twins G.O. and Jacyn. We gave each girl a bookmark with a picture of the character she reminded us of. Hopefully the girls will enjoy the bookmarks and get into some cool summer reading. l

Precious Beauty Turns Beast...every morning!

It has practically become a daily morning routine. Every morning my darling daughter runs into my room with her arms outstretched and a huge smile. "Good morning! I love you!" she bubbles with enthusiasm. Still sleeping or not, I can't resist. I have to wake up and take all the hugs and smiles she wants to give. Afterall, I deserve them, don't I? So it's a beautiful morning and we're all in a great mood. We plan a fun day and I'm looking forward to spending lots of mother daughter time together... And then it's snap. Beauty is gone and in her place is this nasty beast. "I don't want to do that", "I can't make my own breakfast" (although she's done it about a million and one times before!), "No, no, no! Now, now, now!" I'll tell you what's now, now I can't wait to send her to camp!

Little Labels Can Have A Large Impact On Our Young Girls

We all know that name calling really hurts. The days of "sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me" is gone. We all know better.

But what about those innocent seeming little labels? I hear girls constantly referring to themselves or their peers as "tomboy" or "girlie girl". Those are the big ones. The thing is, everytime I hear a girl use one of these words, it seems to have such a negative connotation.
What are your thoughts? Please share your comments!

The TOMGIRLZ MOMZ Mission

I've been writing for elementary aged girls for a couple of years now, but it was brought to my attention that the mothers of these girls could sure use a resource for themselves too. There are tons of parenting magazines out there (I know, I used to have my nose buried in them!). Those magazines are loaded with stuff, stuff, stuff for babies! Thank goodness, I really needed that help when my daughter was a baby. But now she is 9 years old and those parenting issues offer very little help for this age range. I decided I would start a magazine for the mothers of girls ages 5-12. After the baby and toddler stage, but before the teen period (I'm so not ready for that yet!). The magazine would be full of advice for moms on all the issues that our girls are faced with (and there sure are a lot of them!) and would also focus on the mother-daughter relationship.
That sounded great and I've read numerous books on starting a magazine. I really think I can do it too, but one major problem...MONEY! I don't have any. Well, certainly not the amount that it takes to start a magazine...not yet. Luckily, somewhere along the line I learned about blogging. I'm so glad I did, too. For me the most important thing about starting the magazine is the editorial content it offers. Sharing ideas with other mothers of elementary aged and 'tween' girls; discussing the tough times as well as all the fun (and funny) stuff.
That's my purpose for starting this blog. Let's talk about our girls. The trouble they find and the trouble that finds them and all the things we do to build our mother-daughter relationships. That mother daughter relationship is an important one and this is the time when we can influence our daughters the most. We can shape them into strong, competitive, successful women who support their peers and communities (and families!) at the same time.
To all the Tomgirlz Momz out there, I look forward to sharing and caring and building a relationship with you too!