"You can't...."

"You can't let her watch this kind of stuff mom, she is too young. She's not supposed to be liking boys till like she is 10, she supposed to think they are yucky!"
This is what my 15 year old son told me 5 min. ago because the tv is on and zoey 101 is on. Not that baby girl is really watching it, but since he changed the channel she had a fit. They have been on each other's back since he got home 2 and half hours ago. Go figure I didn't think there would be sibling bickering with a age gap of 11 years, figured wrong!

My son is already so overprotective of his baby sister, he's told me he doesn't want her to grow up to be a stupid girl he wants her to do sports, he doesn't want her to wear skirts or shorts. He says he knows what boys think about when they look at girls, he doesn't want that for his baby sister. He says "boys are dirty mom, they really are, I know how they are cause I know how I'm". He actually left wrestling class because they had a sub and they were just standing in the gym watching the cheerleaders. He said he felt like a pervert, he thought the sub was one too, they weren't doing anything but just standing around watching the cheerleaders so he and friend left. He felt like he was being disrespectful and didn't want to be. He made me laugh but I was proud to know he had respect for females and not to act on things, even if he thought it.

I have two older brothers and they were never that over protective of me. I feel bad for baby girl cause she not only has a dad but a big brother protecting her. Baby girl is a girlie girl, so unlike me, at least not that I remember. She loves Disney Princesses and Barbie and at first I was determined for her not to like that crap. I hated the idea of her falling into the Princess crap, being helpless waiting for her Prince charming but then I realized I shouldn't push my ideologies on her yet. She loved baby dolls since she was 9 months old, pretending to breast feed her toys. She is drawn to glittery stuff, pink stuff, but she also loves the color blue. She chooses her clothes, she brushes her hair, she hates being dirty, whenever she comes in from anywhere she goes into the bathroom to wash her hands.

I want my kids to be themselves, without me telling them what to be. I want to give them all the tools to be the best people they can be, yet not to short change themselves by taking the easy way out. Sometimes I fear without experiencing hardship and want they will not be grateful of everything they do have. However I realize we can't compare our lives to theirs, just like i can't compare my life from my parents. Different circumstance and time, unless you live through it you can not understand. So be it I will try and parent without too much judgement and no "when I was your age" stories although I may have slipped up on both. So I will try and let them be their own individuals with support and understanding to the best of my abilities. I will slip up as I have, I will push them in directions that may have been my own but in the end I will give them the tools and confidence to become the very best they can be to be happy. That's what matters in the end, loving and believing in themselves.