Influences.

I was having a discussion with a friend yesterday, which got me wondering if parents of same sex babies worry more for that child/ren due to the fact that they can identify more with that particular sex. Obviously being the parent of only one child (girl) I cannot say whether it is true or not but I realised that being a woman I do know for instance that many women worry (unrealistically) about their weight. I really hope that Maya will be happy in her own skin no matter what size or shape she is. All that matters is that she is healthy. So if she's overweight then that is a problem, but if she is healthily shaped and sized and thinks she's overweight then that is also a problem.

As a woman I have been worried about my weight at times. I have days where I think I am fat and after having Maya my body has changed in a way I am not all that happy with at the moment. I am so conscious of the fact that I don't want to pass these bad habits on to Maya. Realistically I can see that I am of normal weight for my height and though I have some extra bulges that weren't there pre-pregnancy I am a healthy weight.

How do I go about raising a daughter to be comfortable with who she is? I think it starts with me being comfortable with who I am and it does feel like I could be more of an influence in some ways on Maya than her father can. At the same time I am very aware that a father is extremely important to a daughter and also influences how she feels about herself. But is a mother a bigger influence on female mannerisms than a father? In the same way a father might be a bigger influence on male mannerisms than a mother?

So as the mother of a daughter do I have to be more mindful of how I behave, talk and act around my daughter in terms of my femininity than I would if I had a son?

Just something I'm currently thinking about.