If you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably seen my previous posts about Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty and their self-esteem workshops. If you haven’t, please take the time to take a look. As the mother of a young daughter, this is a subject I’m very passionate about.

One of the Dove Self-Esteem Fund’s most recent projects has been a study entitled Real Girls, Real Pressure: A National Report on the State of Self-Esteem. It revealed some alarming statistics that point to the existence of a self-esteem crisis among young girls. Here are a few of the findings:

• 7 in 10 girls feel that they do not measure up in some way, whether in looks, school performance, or relationships.
• 75% of girls with low self-esteem said they engaged in negative behaviors, including such things as smoking, drinking, cutting themselves, bullying and disordered eating.
• 25% of teen girls with low self-esteem have purposely injured themselves.
• 25% of teen girls with low self-esteem have engaged in some form of disordered eating.

The study also found that the older girls get, the less likely they are to talk to their parents when they feel badly about themselves. That means that it’s never too early to start fostering good self-esteem.

These statistics are frightening for any parent of a teen or preteen girl. Isn’t it time we did something to turn it around? Dove has been on a mission to do just that. It is their goal to reach five million girls around the world with self-esteem programming by the year 2010. In addition to their self-esteem workshops and advertising campaigns, they offer a wealth of online tools for girls, moms and mentors on their Campaign for Real Beauty website. There you’ll find booklets, interactive exercises, and even tools that can help you hold your own self-esteem workshop.

I’ve had several people ask me about where they can attend Dove’s self-esteem workshops. I finally found a page where you can sign up to receive alerts about workshops in your area. I’ll leave you with another short film produced by Dove that sums up a few of the reasons behind the self-esteem crisis.

I’ve been rather frustrated at Pumpkin’s lack of interest in t-ball. That’s because she acted like she wanted to play so badly. When she first started she loved it, but now she doesn’t even want to go to the games. She was the same way with basketball.

I left it totally up to her whether she wanted to play a sport or not. I think it’s good for kids to play something, but I don’t believe in making them do it. But there are a lot of other parents who don’t share my philosophy.

There are two boys that I can think of right off the bat who are on Pumpkin’s team whose parents are totally pushing it on them. One cries the majority of the time he’s out on the field, and the other just goes out there and sits down instead of participating. I don’t get why some parents are like that. I mean, just because they were hitting home runs and using testosterone boosters to bulk up in their younger days doesn’t mean their kids have to do the same thing.

I guess I’m kind of the opposite of them. I never got to play sports when I was young and interested in them, and I want to make sure Pumpkin has the opportunity. And if she says she wants to play and I scrape up the money for her to do so, I expect her to get out there and try. But it’s obvious that these kids have no interest whatsoever, and they’re only out there because their parents want them to be. I just don’t think that’s right.

I probably won’t even offer to pay for sports next year. Mostly because I don’t want to waste my time and money on something that she’s not going to stay interested in. But also because I don’t want her to feel like I’m pushing her.

I have been so scatterbrained lately. Well, for the past few months lately. I’ve just had so much on my mind that I can’t keep it all organized, between trying to work 24/7 to keep us up and keeping up with the day-to-day stuff.

Case in point: I took Pumpkin to Girl Scouts last week (which I had completely forgotten about the previous two times) and paid for her to go to a dinner with Santa. I signed up to bring a dessert. I had previously talked to the troop leader about it, and had written down when and where it was.

I was positive that it was tomorrow night, and I was planning on going to the store and getting the stuff to make a pie tomorrow morning. I mentioned it to Hubby, and he said he might be able to go too. I was trying to figure out where the place was that they were having it, and I looked through my notebook to see. I found where I had written down the information, and it said clearly that the dinner was to have been this past Saturday.

No wonder Pumpkin’s troop leader looked at me kind of funny when I saw her on Sunday. Now I’ll have to explain to Pumpkin that she didn’t get to go because Mommy can’t remember anything.

I also forgot about the Christmas parade she was supposed to be in a few weeks ago. She couldn’t have done that either because she was sick at the time, but it’s still terrible that I forgot something like that. I’ve got to do something special for that girl to make up for all of this.

I have tons of laundry to do, a mountain of dishes to wash, and plenty of writing work to keep me busy today. So it looks like I will be doing some extreme multitasking. That should be an Olympic sport.

If extreme multitasking were an Olympic sport, I guarantee that the gold medal would go to a mom. Maybe not me, because I only have one kid who is not in a ton of extracurricular activities yet. But there are plenty of moms out there who work at or outside the home and have several very active children. I get overwhelmed, but my multitasking is small potatoes compared to what they do. If any of you are reading this, hats off to you!

Anyway, I’ve got my work cut out for me today. I suppose I should quit rambling and get to it.

When you have kids, you know how important it is to know basic first aid. You hope you’ll never need it, but in the event that you do, it’s important to be able to keep your composure and deal with the situation quickly and effectively.

First aid books are great, but if something happens you’re not going to have time to go hunting for one. That’s why Safety Magnets are such a great idea. They are magnets with step-by-step instructions about what to do if a child chokes, is poisoned, or needs CPR. You can put them on your refrigerator for easy reference. And you can give them to Grandma or the babysitter so they’ll know what to do if the need arises.

Safety Magnets are a great way to keep important safety information where you can find it. And they’re available with quantity pricing, so they’re good for fundraisers.

Today I had to take Pumpkin back to the doctor for the same old thing. I have been pretty stressed anyway, and her being sick again was putting me over the top. I was prepared to give the doctor a piece of my mind. Luckily for her, the one she’s been seeing wasn’t in today. So I took her to a different one.

I toned it down a bit, but explained in no uncertain terms that I was tired of having to bring her to the doctor twice a month or more. We can’t afford it, and she deserves to get better and not have to see the doctor all the time. He put her on a month’s worth of antibiotics. I’m not crazy about giving them to her that long, but I’m going to give it a go and hope for the best. That’s all I can do.

A couple of weeks ago, I looked briefly at some Easter baskets at Wal-Mart. I didn’t look too closely though, because Pumpkin was with me. I just took note of some things she might like, and promised myself that I would go get some stuff later.

I forgot all about it until a couple of days ago. Seeing how Easter is on Sunday, and I have to work every day until then, I don’t know when I will get to pick her up a basket. I’ve more or less put the notion of putting one together myself to the side, because as much as I would love to I know I’m not going to have time for that.

The only time I can think of that I might get to do it is Saturday after work. Maybe I can talk Hubby into picking her up from his parents’ house so I can go get one. I’m sure things will be very much picked over by then, though. I guess that’s what I get for not being able to remember anything.

I decided not to put Pumpkin in t-ball. I already paid her fees and everything, but I just don’t think it would be the best thing for her to play. She wouldn’t go to her last basketball game on Saturday, she seems to have completely lost interest in that. And I would be willing to bet that the same thing would have happened with t-ball.

She has also been having some behavioral problems. Backtalking, not listening to Hubby and me, those kinds of things. So that was another factor in my decision. I just hope I made the right one.

Pumpkin’s t-ball coach called last night and said he was holding a parents’ meeting this evening. I’m going to see what they have to say. I’m still not sure about letting her play, but I have a feeling that she’s not going to take no for an answer.

I just hope this goes better than basketball did. She just seemed to totally lose interest in it. I would love for her to get involved in sports, because I think it would be really good for her. But I’m not going to force it on her by any means.

I had to take Pumpkin back to the doctor yesterday. They gave her some different antibiotics. This morning we sent her back to school. She still isn’t feeling very well, but the doctor said she could go back today.

We took her out to eat after school in hopes that she would actually eat a little. And she did just that- eat a little. I want so badly for her to get back to her old self. If I could take the sickness away from her, I would do it in a heartbeat.