With Mother's Day around the corner, recommendations are in galore to celebrate all mums around the country. This is indeed rightly so, since mothers, are a special species of individuals. Being a mother myself, I have an inkling of how we as the maternal figure put our children first, every, single, time. To us, there is not a moment's hesitation between the choice of your child or self, you always choose child. We are indeed seasoned warriors, strong and unwavering we take life by the horns and rally through for the sake of family. But before we became who we are today, we were all little girls. Young and carefree, oblivious to the responsibilities that lay before us.  For despite how much we beg to differ it is indeed a man's world and “we” the active participants.  Strains of gender inequality do still exist from the work place to the family home, and it is up to help our daughter's overcome and fight through such barriers to be the successful human beings that they are. 

Fortunately, our thoughts and perceptions of accepted gender behavior within the work environment has greatly improved. But I believe in Asia there still reeks the tendency that women should be primarily involved in bringing up of house and home, whilst if a career does exist that should be of secondary importance. Yes we fully agree about educating our girls to their maximum potential, but at the crunch point of “whose going to stay at home to look after the kids”, the female always steps up to the line. Someone once said “Before you’re anyone’s wife, you should have your own life”. I tend to agree wholeheartedly with that train of thought. Having three daughters at home I  do look forward to their being mother’s sometime in the future but at the same time I hope that they are financially independent with successful careers of their own. A balance of both worlds is what I hope for them. It is important for us to drill these expectations into our girls from a young age, to not to bow to the views of society because it is convenient but instead to pursue what they truly want and NOT feel guilty about it. 

1. We always teach our children to be “nice” people. That does necessarily mean to forgo their choices in order to be nice and likable. Teach your daughter’s to take a stand with their thoughts and ideas. This in turn will teach them confidence and the ability to respect themselves. That is a more important quality rather than suffering to be liked. By teaching them to be confident and dependable upon themselves, this will help them make better choices in the future. 

2. Encourage a healthy body image and never encourage them to follow beauty magazines. Always encourage your daughters to play sports, for lots of girls forgo since they feel their complexions will be a risk. Sports teaches children essential lessons in winning and losing, in striving for excellence and to do whatever they do to the best of their abilities. Sports does not expect underachievers or ad hoc momentary participation. To excel in athletics one must be disciplined, be dedicated and learn group cohesiveness. These are keys elements that every child should learn, especially girls. 

3. Introduce your daughters to female leaders or women holding positive roles. By showing them the tangent of what they can accomplish it opens the world up to them. You can equip them with the necessary tools and knowledge, after that through example they will find the way. 

4. Believe in your daughter. Sometimes the tendency is to educate boys in the best available facilities and send your daughters to a lesser mediocre one. Why should this be the case? How are you protecting your girls from sending one to one school and sending another to a different. Boys are easily corrupted as well. The diligent child will always learn whatever the environment, but I wholly disagree on children being categorized according to gender when it comes to education. Everyone should have the same opportunities to excel. 

Our country still buckles at the thought of gender equality. An important lesson to teach our daughters that since this is so, our fledgling warriors will learn then to fight harder, to learn harder, to stand stronger and of course to roar much louder. They will be invincible. 

By Mayuri Jayasinghe