Parent Like It Matters
How to Raise Joyful, Change-Making Girls
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
An accessible blueprint to embolden our daughters to be critical thinkers, fearless doers, and joyful change agents for our future—from the proud mother of teen activist Marley Dias, founder of 1000BLACKGIRLBOOKS.
“A powerful resource for caregivers trying to raise courageous girls . . . It’s my go-to and my how-to.”—Kwame Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of Light for the World to See
Renowned sociologist Dr. Janice Johnson Dias has devoted her life to nurturing and training girls to become change-makers—whether through her investment in her daughter Marley’s humanitarian projects or through her work with the GrassROOTS Community Foundation’s “SuperCamp.” In these unprecedented times, her work has never been more urgent, as parents find themselves asking: How do we teach our children to change the world?
Dr. Johnson Dias knows that self-realized girls are created through intentional parenting. And so she asks parents to make deliberate choices—from babyhood through adolescence—that will give their girls the resources and foundation to take hold of their own futures and to create sustainable social change.
Unlike other parenting experts, Dr. Johnson Dias doesn’t urge parents to focus solely on their children. Instead, she tasks them with a personal challenge: to find their own joy. Just as Dr. Johnson Dias brings her own jubilant passion to parenting, mentoring, and teaching, she inspires caregivers to do the same.
Using cutting-edge research and Dr. Johnson Dias’s own experiences, Parent Like It Matters offers information and strategies for making discussions of racism and sexism a daily practice, identifying heroes and mentors, educating yourselves together, and uncovering your girl’s passions and what issues drive her the most.
Parenting is enormous work; it can be as overwhelming as it is fulfilling. Within the pages of Parent Like It Matters, parents will find the invaluable tools they need to raise resilient, optimistic girls who determine for themselves what their world will look like.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Raising a child demands imagination and flexibility," advises sociologist Johnson Dias (Affirming Beauty) in this empowering guide to finding the joy in raising daughters. In four parts ("Who is Your Girl?"; "Who Are You?"; "What is Her World?"; and "Change-Maker") the author presents a program for "raising self-realized girls," sharing research by psychologists and pediatricians along the way. In order to help girls become confident agents of change, Johnson Dias writes, parents must help their children determine "who they will be" and cut through cultural conceptions about what girls can be. Assignments appear throughout, such as "make a mirror that reflects your girl," in which a child and her parents write adjectives on a mirror as a "reminder of who she really is." She also suggests helping fuel girls' imaginations by letting children make their own decisions about the kinds of books they want to read. Along with her tips, the author weaves her story as a mother of a teenage daughter who is also an activist and writer. Johnson Dias's forthright advice successfully calls upon parents to join their girls in creating the changes they wish to see. Her wide-ranging guidance shouldn't be missed.