Women and Daughters of Tomorrow #IWD2022 #BreakTheBias

When I think about “women of tomorrow “I picture my daughter Fiyinfoluwa (Folu), my name is Longina (Gina) and I am honoured to be her mother. The future I see for her is beyond beautiful. However, I have an understanding that it is going to require some nurturing from myself and my village of the driven, beautiful, hard-working, imperfectly perfect women that water our flower Folu on a regular basis. This includes my family, friends and teachers.

In my adult life, I have come to live my life based on self-love, self-care and self-value. When I am able to love, value and care for the SELF, the rest comes easy. I always show up as myself in every room I enter and I am able to give to the world as my cup is always full. I am intentional with loving and valuing myself. When I started my journey of self-discovery two years ago, I did not realize that someone else was journeying with me. My 5-year-old daughter learned with me through observation and participation. I didn’t realize how much she absorbed. She has contributed to a yet to be released self-care documentary by #Imperfection Lives Here. Her favourite things to do for self-care are: face masks, painting her nails and spending quiet time colouring and drawing. When asked what self-care is, she answered, “it is taking care of yourself or doing whatever you want”. Every morning we do our positive affirmations before starting the day, and that keeps us grounded. She is curious about the books that I read and she asks questions. Right now, I am reading Feel the fear and do it anyway by Susan Jeffers and as I read, I get excited to share with her some of the things I am learning. We have gone through picking out graphic design samples and looked at possible venues together. She has opinions and she makes them known, they get me thinking and sometimes I do accept her ideas and suggestions.

Also, I have started teaching her about how people earn money, that her ideas and the time she spends helping mommy with her businesses are valuable. Folu gets paid for all the time she puts into my work. Her rate is $20 dollars, thank heavens I can afford her for now…lol. She loves shopping for barbie dolls with the money she earns and the rare times she will offer to pay for my groceries if we are together. If she has changed from her shopping trip, it goes to the piggie bank from her aunt.

One day I asked out of curiosity, “Bug, how would you describe your mom?”, she answered, “you are the self-care and confidence girl”. My whole being smiled and, at that moment, I thought, if she grows up to understand and embrace those 3 concepts, I would have done my job. She is going to be okay as one of the Women of Tomorrow. Lastly, I am thankful to God that I get to nurture this beautiful little human into her future as a woman.