An American Girl Breakfast With Momtrends & Dr. Cara Natterson

My husband has asked me on several occasions, at what age will our girls stop wanting us. While our girls are only 7 & 5, each year seems to go by faster and faster. They are growing up too quickly and before we know it that time will be here.
There are many challenges and life-lessons that come with growing up, especially for girls.   Navigating social circles, understanding puberty and the changes your body goes through, the ever-changing emotions and hormones, learning from mistakes made along the way, and now social media and cyber-bullying.   All of this can impact the relationships between moms and daughters.

Not long ago I took my oldest daughter for a special day out at the American Girl store.  We started the morning with a breakfast hosted by Momtrends and American Girl. We joined Dr. Cara Natterson, best-selling author of the American Girl advice collection, The Care and Keeping of Us in a discussion about raising girls and keeping the spark in the relationship between Mom’s and Daughters.

Here are a few tips Dr. Cara Natterson shared during our discussion:

• Delay Social Media as long as possible.
• Discuss tough subjects on long car rides or at night when the lights go off.  Your child might be more willing to open up.
• 12 seems to be the magic number in which girls start finding friendships more important.
• Let your child fail and make mistakes.  If they don’t bring their homework to school or study for their test, they will learn that they need to do it next time.
• Dad’s should be involved with their daughters. The Care and Keeping of us could be a great resources for dad’s to use.
• When it comes to friendships you think might not be positive for your daughter, use subtle steering.  “Hold a Mirror” and talk about what’s happening.  Second grade is especially hard.  It’s the beginning of social shifts and “resorting”.  A good resource could be the American Girl Friendship Book.

The Care & Keeping of Us: A Sharing Collection for Girls and Their Moms is a 3-book set to keep lines of communication open for girls and Moms.  The collection includes The Care & Keeping of Us: A How-To-Say-It Book for Girls, The Care & Keeping of Us: A How-To-Say-It Book for Moms, and The Care & Keeping of Us: A Book for Girls and Their Moms to Share.  My daughter was so excited to look through the book.  It has many conversation starters for difficult topics and activities to work on together.  It will be a good resource for both of my girls as they grow.

After our wonderful discussion, my daughter was able to explore the store.  We took her doll for Salon Services, checked out the beautiful holiday displays, and put together her Holiday wish list.  One thing I from that day was how important it is to spend time with each of my daughters, individually.  We had a wonderful day.  I am looking forward to sharing many more adventures together and working on our Sharing Collection together.

Disclaimer:  I received a gift bag for attending the event however this did not alter my opinions.  All opinions expressed are my own. Thank you Momtrends, American Girl, and Dr. Cara Natterson for a wonderful morning.