This week's VMAs and the outcry over the Miley Cyrus "performance" has me scratching my head. The performance itself didn't surprise me one bit, what has me befuddled is that the parents of the tweens who grew up watching her didn't see it coming.
If you are a parent of a child that is old enough to have seen Hannah Montana on Disney, then you have lived through the following child celebrity meltdowns (and this is no comprehensive list):
Amanda Bynes
Britney Spears
Lindsay Lohan
Christina Aguilera
Demi Lovato
Daniel Radcliffe
and if you're as old as I am (today is my 39th birthday) you witnessed a whole slew of them:
Michael Jackson
Macaulay Culkin
Drew Barrymore
Whitney Houston
Tatum O'Neal
Linda Blair
Leif Garret
Though some recovered nicely and are currently having commercial success, some never did and are no longer walking this earth.
My point, is that we shouldn't be surprised. We should have seen it coming the first time she put on her little blonde wig and honestly we should've known better. We should have known better than to let our daughters look up to her, no matter how much she promised (and we prayed) that she would be different. She isn't different, she's human.
I get it, we live in a world where our children need people to look up to, young girls need heroes. If you're looking for someone for your daughter to emulate, may I make a few suggestions?
Sarah became the mother of a nation (Genesis Chapters 11-25)
Ruth was a loyal friend and daughter-in-law (The Book of Ruth)
Rahab risked her life to save her family (Joshua Chapter 2)
Esther risked her life to save her nation (The Book of Esther)
Mary risked her life to save the world (Luke Chapters 1-2)
This isn't a complete list either, and there are a whole slew of women in history who have taken risks and left the world a better place. But, you don't have to look far to find a role model for your daughter. I bet, if we were honest with ourselves, the heroes we
remember (the ones who had the most influence) weren't in New York or
L.A. They were in our kitchen cooking dinner, sitting in the carpool
line waiting for us to get out of school, on their knees every night
praying for us and sitting next to us in church on Sunday.
If
you want to see your daughter's biggest hero, take a look in the
mirror. Be the woman you want her to become.
