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4 Things Fathers of Girls Can Do To Raise Confident Women
Ty Phillips is raising his girls to be confident, independent women, because who they are and who they become isn’t up to him.
By Ty Phillips
“What would you like, sweetheart?” I caught myself smiling while the little girl and her father neared the toy section in Target. She pulled him towards the Star Wars Legos and said, “I want these, daddy!” Her pigtailed head looked up at him, a smile beaming from her face. “Nope, those are boy toys, you don’t play with boy toys because you are a little girl.” Her little face frowned and she whimpered back, “But I want these.”
The interaction didn’t end well. The father lost his patience as he demanded that her opinion didn’t matter because it was wrong and that as a girl, she only had a specific set of choices that were appropriate. Afterward, he barked, “Well, we’re leavin’, then. If you can’t pick a girl’s toy, then you don’t need nuthin’.”
He picked her up briskly and stormed toward the front. I could hear her crying and my heart sank.
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Shortly after this encounter, I was back home and scrolling through Facebook. One of the first things to greet my eyes was a picture degrading women for…
