I’m currently home with my four-year-old niece. Today, I was on facetime with a male friend who said he was playing video games. She instantly got upset, responding “I can’t play video games because I’m a girl.” Wait, wait, wait. What the fuckery? I immediately told her “You can do anything you want.” And she seemed confused. “Anything?” She repeated. “Damn straight,” I responded. Parents, teachers, whoever else are whispering into the ears of CHILDREN, I want to let you know something. Just because you couldn’t do it at their age or maybe you are still unable to, that doesn’t define them.
Children Can Do Anything
For this blog, I want to reiterate the ‘more modern’ idea of allowing a child to believe in what they want and strive for the stars. It’s 2019, we have seen what would have been considered impossible decades ago. Women have broken into the video game business so not only can you play the game; I challenge you to rock that game. And that’s not all. We have airplanes so hell to the yes, little one. You can even fly one day. And whatever we don’t have already, I challenge you to invent it.
There are thousands of statistics disproving all of the discouraging things that we all have heard. Women are not staying at home objects. 70 percent of mothers with children under the age of 18 participate in the workforce. African Americans aren’t thugs. In 2016, there were 121,466 black-owned firm businesses. Having a mental illness does not mean you are unable. There are millions of people who were able to have success despite the stereotypes held against people with mental illness including Abraham Lincoln and Oprah Winfrey.
Society has a habit of trying to keep people boxed in based on the assumptions of others. As humans who have benefited from the success stories of our peers, why wouldn’t we—even if they are for selfish reasons—want to continue benefitting from what they have to offer? Next time you go to try to prevent a child from living out their dreams, think about the fact that they are children, privy to every word you say. Your comment might be the one thing that sticks with them as they grow, preventing them from going out there and solving cancer, which you or a loved one might be diagnosed with at a later time. You could give them a kind comment, which could fight every negative comment they hear as they go through this bitch of a world. Your comment could lead to their discovery of the cure of cancer. And therefore, in a way, you would have cured cancer instead of being [someone] trying to tell kids what they can and can’t do.
