Juliana, my 6 year old daughter loves shoes. And she loves clothes, she loves necklaces, she loves all things girly.
Her father blames me, he thinks that I’m making her a little bit superficial. I tell him that he’s crazy of course, but I wonder if liking clothes and girly stuff should be labeled superficial?
Of course no one wants to have a girl that only thinks about fashion but I actually find it normal that she likes clothes and shoes–why wouldn’t I? I also love shoes, clothes and necklaces and I don't consider myself to be superficial. I'm actually pretty normal (Ok, as close to normal as I can get).
But her father wants Juliana to be an intellectual or an artist. I like that idea too, in fact I like the idea of her becoming whatever she wants to be (gymnast, dancer, teacher–those are her choices so far…) but does that have anything to do with being a girl and trying to look nice?
Does being girly make her less focused on the things that matter? I really don’t think so.
The only trouble I see for now is that her taste is a little bit out of whack! If she had her way, she would wear wool skirts with halters, or summer dresses with boots.She clearly still needs some guidance with her clothes selection.
Such guidance comes sometimes in the way of terrible morning fights. She also gets upset when we go to shoe stores together and I don’t like the pairs that she picks out for me. I don't hate neon, but those bright yellow pumps seemed a bit much for me, especially since we're still wearing gloves and winter jackets.
Anyway, superficial or not, we both like shoes and one day we’ll shop for shoes together and she'll have flawless taste…I hope. And this thought makes me smile.
Image via Sofia Aguilar
