What are your hopes for your daughter?

[KateMumsnet]

Last year, as part of our ongoing support for organisations working on maternal health in the developing world, CarrieMumsnet handed in a Mother's Day card to David Cameron and Nick Clegg, asking them to keep the issue high on the international development agenda. One year on, and there's good news: the number of women dying in childbirth worldwide is falling. But there's still a long way to go, and so this Mother's Day the White Ribbon Alliance is asking Mumsnetters to add their 'Dreams For My Daughter' to those already submitted by families worldwide.

The plan is to send some of these Dreams to Number Ten, to remind the government to keep up the pressure on world leaders to deliver the funding they promised at the UN in September. The goal is to provide 3.5 million extra health workers, which would help to prevent 1000 women a day from dying needlessly in childbirth - and the idea came from a Hadhya, a Yemeni WRA member, whose own mother's dream was that her daughter wouldn't be married at 11 and a mother at 13, as she had been.

If you'd like to help, do post your own Dream here; they can be as pragmatic and personal, or as global and wide-ranging as you'd like. And if your household is a boys-only one, don't be put off - you can post your dream for your son (or for a possible future DIL or granddaughter ) here too.

I want both my girls to grow up happy, without fear and to be treated equally.
I want them to enjoy good health because life can be hard enough without battling illness.
I want them to have lovely things but not think that money is the most important thing in their life.
I want them to experience the joy of being a mother, it's hard work but the best job there is.
I want them to be happy in their choices and have few regrets.
I want them to keep their sense of humour because they are the funniest people I know

I love this poem by neil gaiman.

'keep her from spindles and sleeps at sixteen,...'

journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/02/this-is-prayer-for-blueberry-girl.html

I want my DD to be happy and healthy, and to have choices and to use the choices wisely. I'd like her to think about a bigger picture than her own bubble and to spend her time with joy, passion and thoughtfulness.

I hope that she is confident enough to know what is right for her and to follow that path, that happiness cannot be measured in height or weight, financially or socially (by which I mean, being famous does not make you happy)...

To understand that perfection simply doesn't exist and happiness and beauty comes from our imperfections.

I hope that she is able to live as free a life as my son and never feels she has to bow to the judgement or will of a man (or anyone, for that matter).

Similiarily, I hope that my son understands the importance of equality.

If it's necessary to add to what's already been said, I hope my lovely girls grow up to feel loved, secure, confident, with a strong sense of self-esteem tempered with thought/ consideration/ kindness for others. I hope they feel there are no barriers to whatever they want to do, that they are able to try & experience lots of different things so they can discover their strengths and find something they love and enjoy and are good at from which to make a comfortable living.
I hope they are not hampered by a sense of needing to conform, and that even during the worst times, they are able to count their blessings and carry on. I hope they will always talk to me/be open and be able to learn from my mistakes. I hope they develop much better social skills than me!!

I hope they will always know that their existence has brought me the most joy I could ever have hoped to experience in this life.

I want my daughter/s to never have to hide who they are to make a man feel better or more secure.
I want their health concerns to be taken as seriously as a man's or a child's.
I want them to be able to have children, but not to be defined soley by motherhood.
I want them to have the opportunity to excel at whatever they choose to do, without having to fight to be recognised.
I want them to be able to travel where they like, without having to worry that as a woman they are in danger or may be treated as a second class citizen.
I want their contributions to be considered equally valid as the contributions of the men in their lives.

I want my daughter to be able to live her life and make her choices knowing that she is not responsible for her severely disabled brother. I hope she has the compassion to "look out for his best interests" without the stress and heartache that trying to get appropriate services brings.

At 15 she has already exceeded all hopes I had for her.

May she live a long, happy, fulfilled and successfull life.

Much of what has been said. I sometimes tell them that they should never believe anyone who says they are worth less because they are girls and that whatever they do (bin woman or surgeon) they should do it with their whole hearts. I hope there will be more equality of opportunity when they are grown and that the fact of having contributed to the continuation of the human race/survival of the economy will not put them at a huge personal financial disadvantage.

I also hope they don't grow up to be people-pleasers like me

Oh and to never rely on a man for financial security - ever

To have a choice.

I can't think of anything more important than that.

That she lives a long, happy and healthy life.

That she is surrounded by people who love her and she loves in return. That she has the strength to be alone.

That she takes pleasure in the simple things in life.
That she makes the right choices for herself.
That she is strong, and beautiful and does not spend her time trying to please others.
That she is accomplished and takes pleasure in her own success.
That she still wants to get in bed for a morning snuggle when she is 30.
That she wants to share her life with me.

To have choice - real choice in all aspects of her life. True choice in education (access to schools), in work/family balance (improved parental allowances and opportunities), in childbirth (at home/in hospital/in a MW led unit), in retirement (not penalized by choice to take maternity leave echoed in state pension, such as it is likely to be!) and in death (dignity and choice for care). Oh, and to be happy ;-)

I want her to be happy with herself, and happy with her body but not to be defined by it. To not be afraid to use her brain, and to find her equal in life. Because I can't promise her that nothing will ever go wrong, I want her to be strong enough to cope with whatever life throws at her, but also to have people in her life who will support her.

My main wish for DD is for her to be able to look at herself in the mirror and not feel sickened or ashamed of what she sees. I would like her to be happy in her own skin and able to walk along the street with confidence and her head held high. The opposite of me, in fact because I know that if you can't do the above then everything else in life is affected.

Wishes for good health etc are a given.

my dream.......

that one day, all female babies will be welcomed as my daughters were
that one day, all girls will respect their bodies as my daughters do
that one day, all women will be equal as my daughters will be
that one day, no women will fear childbirth , as my daughters won't
that one day, all mothers will be honoured, as my daughters will

For my daughter - I hope that you can make sense of this world, that you do not come to harm nor are hurt by people who don't understand that you do not understand.
I hope that you know how much you are loved and protected.

My hope is that you are happy, safe and loved as much as you are now, long after I am gone.

I would like her to live her own life and not feel the need to be a man pleaser.

be happy, get the education and employment chances she merits,
never be put at an unfair disadvantage because of her gender, know her worth.

i hope she is never told 'Girls can't...'

i hope she protects her health - sexual and otherwise and if she needs assistance to conceive, that it is there. If she becomes a mother herself, i hope she can do so safely and in the manner of her own choosing. I hope that the lottery of nature is kind to her but healthcare is there for her if it isn't.

I hope she can find a man or woman to love who is worthy of her.

of course I'd love it if they often visited their Mummy too:)

That she has the freedom and confidence to make her own choices,

that she knows that beauty and image are not the same thing and that true beauty really does come from within,

that she is always safe,

that she is happy

I dream that my girls will feel they can do anything. I want them to be happy, and healthy and strong. I want them to be confident and assertive and kind and emotionally whole. I pray that they will never be limited in their own dreams. I want them to know how very much I love them always.

This thread is making me blub like a baby [Ellie sniffs loudly and goes to look for tissues]

I want my dd to be as happy with her life when she looks back on it as I am with mine. Maybe even happier. But an ability to enjoy life, a sense of achievement, a sense of well-being and happiness with her choice of partner would be fabulous.

If she's ambitious, great, but if she chooses not to be, that's her choice and that's something I was never allowed to feel I had.

I just want her to be kept safe and happy when i'm not here to do it

I want my DDs to grow into old ladies, and then to look back on their lives with pleasure and to have no regrets. I just want her to say "I've had a good life and I'm pleased with the choices I've made."

As yet I have a DS and only a hypothetical DD, but

I hope that any child of mine will have the strength to stand up for what they believe in, the self respect to stand up for themselves, and the knowledge that they have always have a home to come back to.