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MNHQ

What are your hopes for your daughter?

153 replies

KateMumsnet · 29/03/2011 12:45

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 Smile) here too.

OP posts:
WorzselMummage · 31/03/2011 20:59

I want both of my children to be happy and content.

EllieG · 31/03/2011 21:54

Oh I'd love to have gone along for that. But live nowhere near London so can't.

Keep reading this thread and still making me cry. I think DH will confiscate the computer soon.

CornishTwinMoominMamma · 31/03/2011 22:11

I bought a book called Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman for my baby daughter. It sums up my hopes for her:

Ladies of light and ladies of darkness and ladies of never you mind,
This is a prayer for a blueberry girl,
First may you ladies be kind.

Keep her from spindles and sleeps at sixteen,
Let her stay waking and wise,
Nightmares at three or bad husbands at thirty,
These will not trouble her eyes.

Dull days at forty, false friends at fifteen-
Let her have brave days and truth,
Let her go places that we've never been,
Trust and delight in her youth.

Ladies of grace and ladies of favour and ladies of merciful night,
This is a prayer for a blueberry girl,
Grant her your clearness of sight.

Words can be worrisome, people complex,
Motives and manners unclear,
Grant her the wisdom to choose her path right,
Free from unkindness and fear.

Let her tell stories and dance in the rain
Somersault, tumble and run.
Her joys must be high as her sorrows are deep,
Let her grow like a weed in the sun.

Ladies of paradox, ladies of measure, ladies of shadows that fall,
This is a prayer for a blueberry girl,
Words written clear on a wall.

Help her to help herself, help her to stand,
Help her to lose and to find,
Teach her we're only as big as our dreams,
Show her that fortune is blind.

Truth is a thing she must find for herself,
Precious and rare as a pearl,
Give her all these and a little bit more...
Gifts for a blueberry girl.

mama4life · 31/03/2011 22:20

Apart from many of the wonderful wishes expressed in this thread ,what I think I'd most like for my daughter is to develop her inner strength , to have a healthy sense of self-belief . To know the difference between what is right and what is wrong and to possess a set of values that she can live by and rely on when she is faced with the dilemmas and uncertainties that life throws up every now and then.
Also to know and use her God -given rights and potential and let no man or woman deprive her of these . I hope she will grow wise and realise Truths- small and big and have the courage and will to face them, when needed.
I pray ofcourse that she experiences and is able to share
fullfillment, happiness success & health and that she lives a life not ruled by fear.
And to always know that her mum will never, ever give up on her.

thousandsplendidsuns · 31/03/2011 22:44

A real and meaningful choice about what she wants to do and be in life

NK143d2c0eX12284cb4220 · 31/03/2011 23:40

I hope that she is happy and healthy with lots of people around her who love her; and that she has freedom with choices and no fear of any violence - throughout her life.

Muslima · 01/04/2011 00:09

i want my daughter to have faith in her heart, to be happy, to be content with what she has and yet to aspire to the best, to be loved, to love, to have respect for herself, to be respected, to have honour, to be innocent.

I hope that she never gives up hope in her life, and that whatever life she has, she lives it to teh full, that she strives to succeed in whatever she does, taht she has an impact on the lives of others and that others look at her with love and affection. I wish her the best in health. I hope that my best qualities live on in her......

I don't think i can stop wishing and hoping for my daughter, and for all those i love.

cloudydays · 01/04/2011 01:56

Three wishes: that she is happy, healthy, and kind.

That's all.

monoid · 01/04/2011 02:32

I hope that there will be a half decent government in place, the recession will have disappeared and there will actually be some jobs available... In a very literal sense.
More generally, I hope she is happy and achieves whatever goals and ambitions she sets herself. I want her to have good friends and successful relationships. I hope she is lucky in life. I want her to be polite, respectful and non-judgemental. I hope that she never has to worry about money in the same way I do.
I want her to work for what she has and get what she deserves. Let's hope that true gender equality will be all sorted by then.
I hope that when she gets old, she can look back on her life and be proud of what she has achieved.

Babelfish · 01/04/2011 10:38

I want my daughter to feel free to be herself, whether that means wearing a party dress, climbing a tree, working on quadratic equations, doing all of that at once, or something completely different. The world is before you, L. Spread your wings and fly...

cinnamontoast · 01/04/2011 11:26

I hope my daughter will be happy and loved, will have the confidence and the opportunity to fulfil her dreams, will fight for equality and justice and will always, always do the right thing.

If she can do this, she will be a much better person than I am. Fortunately she is!

laughalot · 01/04/2011 12:55

I want her to grow up and be a happy confident girl who feels she can tell her mum anything.

Guildenstern · 01/04/2011 14:03

I hope that's she's not too pretty to do Maths (see explanatory threads here and here).

thefirstMrsDeVere · 01/04/2011 14:41

I want to join in please.

For my DD I wanted:
Her to feel confident about herself and feel able to stand up for herself.
To understand that being kind and compassionate is more important than being pretty.
To grow up in a world where the colour of her skin did make people sterotype her.
To be able to be the lawyer she wanted to be.
To have children and make me a grandmother.
To have an equal and loving relationship whatever her sexuality.

She didnt get to do these things but she would have because she was brilliant. I am still the mother of a daughter.

bucharest I played that song at her funeral.

littlepig · 01/04/2011 16:08

I want her to love and know that she is loved.
I want her to appreciate and enjoy her life and the people in it.
I want her to have the confidence to do what she believes in and the wisdom and understanding for that to be a good thing.

vanimal · 01/04/2011 17:20

I want my daughters to grow up and be confident in themselves and their abilities. And not to let anyone walk over them.

And I want them to be happy every minute of their lives!

StarlightMcKenzie · 01/04/2011 19:58

I dream that my 2.5 year old will one day no longer be in nappies!

I dream she will be a lawyer for disability rights and that this area of law will be well respected and funded.

I dream she will have access to quality childcare and that her role as mother will be respected and valued.

I dream that she and her friends breastfeed her children in public for many years as will be the norm.

I dream that she will have real choices and enabled to live a flexible lifestyle.

I dream that she'll have a mother that was able to support her rather than crippled by dodgy policies and neglect for her autistic brother as he was growing up.

ArthurPewty · 01/04/2011 20:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

flakypastry · 01/04/2011 20:53

My main hope for my dd is that she grows up having a lot of self-confidence and a high self-esteem because I have had very little of that and do not want her to be walked all over like I have.
I also hope that the loving, warm and nurturing nature that she has will always stay with her and draw people towards her. I hope that she will fulfil all her dreams and the admiration that she has for me now as a little girl will still be there as a grown woman.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 01/04/2011 20:54

I hope she speaks, can read and write, and has at least one friend. She may not.

flakypastry · 01/04/2011 20:59

thefirstMrsDeVere you have left me in tears..

DurhamDurham · 01/04/2011 21:17

thefirstMrsDeVere reading your post has made me want to hug and kiss my girls. So sorry you daughter isn't with here now but you'll always be her mum. You sound so brave Sad

thefirstMrsDeVere · 01/04/2011 21:33

Sorry to make you cry flaky Smile
durham thank you. I dont feel very brave at the moment (bloody mothers day). She was though. The bravest person I have every known.

DurhamDurham · 01/04/2011 21:39

But you are so brave, that's where your daughter must have got all her bravery from. I cannot imagine how birthdays, Christmas and Mothers Day must be for you. I hope you have loads of happy memories to look back on xx

thefirstMrsDeVere · 01/04/2011 21:43

Thank you durham. I do. lots and lots. She was perfect.

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