How to Raise a Healthy Daughter

Even if you love your daughter very much, raising a healthy girl requires sensitivity to her feelings and frequent expressions of love. A girl who grows up only being told she's pretty might feel as though she has nothing to offer intellectually, or vice versa. Raising a truly healthy daughter with high self-esteem requires you to praise her beauty and intelligence equally. Teaching her to take care of her body also helps her feel better about herself, both physically and mentally.

Instructions

    • 1

      Listen to your daughter whenever she needs to talk. Validate her feelings even if you don't agree with her. The exception is if she's being verbally abusive, at which point it's acceptable to walk away until she can talk to you calmly. Not only do you have to respond to healthy emotional expression, you have to respond to unhealthy expression by refusing to validate it with your time.

    • 2

      Encourage your daughter to study hard in school. Lend a hand with her homework whenever possible. Ask her about what she's learning, and discuss it with her in a way that encourages critical thinking. If you want tips for encouraging her, ask her teacher what he observes of her learning style in class and what he feels she needs to work on at home.

    • 3

      Expose your daughter to as many different activities and kinds of people as you possibly can. If you have money to travel to foreign countries, take her, and encourage her to talk to as many people as possible -- with you at her side, of course. If you're landlocked for now, try out different lessons, go to museums and attend free cultural events whenever you can. Always discuss her experience afterward.

    • 4

      Refrain from talking badly about your body, skills or intelligence in front of her. Don't call yourself fat or stupid in her presence, and don't insult other women or comment on their weight gain. Let her know by example that what she looks like is of little consequence if she develops her brain and her talents.

    • 5

      Involve her father. She needs to know her mother loves her, but she also needs her father -- or a father figure -- in her life. If you're no longer in contact with her father, ask your male friends to step in for things like driving lessons, softball practice and father-daughter dances.

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