Daughter’s Day
evawhite on October 1st, 2008
It was Daughter’s Day a few days ago, and quite frankly it would have passed me by, had I not read an article in the newspaper about it. So the greeting card companies came out with another ‘Day’ to sell cards and other merchandise, thought I. Apparently this one is observed on the last Sunday of September. Ho hum. I tried to find out more about Daughter’s day and it would seem that it is something that Archies thought up.
However, what Daughter’s day did do is make me reflect about the fact that now I have a daughter myself, what is it that I do differently from when I did not have one. Being responsible for a tiny new life makes you reassess everything in life and when that little life is so very precious you tend to perceive things differently, take fewer risks, act in a more responsible fashion. For instance I remember being a bit of a tear away in college, whizzing around all over town on my scooter. People used to carry tales to my father, telling him his daughter is a rash driver. Dad counseled me, but I was either too immature or just too unaware of the perils that I placed myself each time I drove rashly, to heed his wisdom. Now as a mother myself, I think about how stupid I was, and acknowledge the fact that when my daughter grows up, I may see history repeating itself.
As a mother of a daughter, when I hear about female infanticide still being practiced in many countries of the world, and hear about the ridiculous extremes that people go to, to obtain a male ‘heir’ I am both puzzled and appalled. Even the thought of what my life would be like without that precious angel of my daughter makes me go cold. Quite simply I cannot now imagine my life without her, she is so incredibly precious, that I wonder how some people can think of spurning a gift that a daughter is.
I still read in horror about how unwelcome the girl child still is in so many places around the world: female feticide is common in India, in China one child families are the norm, but you are permitted to have a second child if the first is a mere girl. The girl child is still killed or abandoned at birth because of the bride price that will ultimately have to be paid for her.
If this still happens in the world, I wonder if we can still call this world civilized.
I am convinced that one of the most special bonds on earth has to be the one that exists between a father and his daughter. I remember my aunt telling me of the time that my father saw me for the first time. He saw me for the first time as he waited in the lobby of the maternity hospital; he saw me being carried in a tub all covered in blood and vernix and my aunt often told me about the look of absolute elation on his face when they told him it was a Girl!
