What I'm Going to Do About My Daughter

I was at my mother's house
On a lovely summer day
Watching my daughter
Climb up a tree

My mother noticed my daughter
An athletic and careful girl
Going up the tree in her backyard
And she promptly went insane

'WHAT--' she said to me '--are you going to do about your daughter?'

I thought about that for a second

What am I going to do about my daughter?

And I said--

'Mom...'

I'm going to watch her
Do everything you told me
Only boys could do
And do it better

I'm going to let her
Change her own oil
And wear high heels
And cut off all her hair when she's twenty
And drink Sprite out of a wineglass
Just so she can feel fancy

I'm going to allow her
To ride on the back of a motorcycle
And eat scrambled eggs for dinner
And put on black eye-liner
And stay up later than midnight
And that's because I believe
That doing those things
Might, just might, prevent her
From becoming the clone of the girls in high school
That I didn't like

I'm going to see her go to law school
Or med school
Or the Peace Corp
Or become an actress
Or whatever

The point is I'm going to see her
I'm going to see her do it
Because she's not going to be afraid
To show me

I'm going to teach her
That the only reason girls
Don't call themselves feminists anymore
Is because a few stupid men
Undid what my generation did
Just by suggesting that the word 'feminist' was a turn-off

I'm going to tell her
That her Mom didn't march in parades
And burn her bra
So that her daughter
Could marry rich
And let her brain erode
By marinating it in mimosas and martinis

I said--

Mom, I'm going to let her climb up that tree
And I'm going to let her climb higher
And faster than I feel comfortable with
Because I want her to be twice the woman I am
In half the time

I'm going to be her friend and her mother
And if you say I can't be both
That's only you bringing attention to the fact
That you couldn't be either

I'm going to let her climb that tree
And if she falls
I'll be there to catch her, Mom

That's what I'm going to do
About my daughter