Mother Daughter Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Kathleen Hassan

When the Bully is You!

And by you, I mean me. I’ve been procrastinating about writing this article for about a month now because it’s rather humbling to discover that after lecturing about self-esteem and empowerment to teen girls for over a decade that the bully was actually me. But after reading an article in the Boston Globe the other day about Phoebe Prince, a fifteen year old girl who committed suicide after being bullied at school by the so-called “mean girls,” I knew that the time had come to tell this story. I hope to shed a different light on the topic of girls and bullying in order to better understand both perspectives and to help heal both the bullies and the bullied. I’ve never been one to hop on the anti-bullying crusade because I have learned that whatever we push against, we actually bring more of the same back into our experience. In [...]

The Talk Before “The Talk”

One of the most powerful, if not the most important relationship in a girl’s life is the one she has with her mother. The way a mother and daughter interact and communicate affects and shapes a girl’s sense of self and often forms the basis for the way a girl interacts in every other relationship throughout her life. But very little forethought goes into the framework of this most important relationship and as a result, it just sort of evolves and morphs and oftentimes escalates into an all out war. I get emails from girls all across the country asking me questions like “how do i talk to my mom about boys? Whenever i try and bring up the topic i get nervous. Its like i can never have guys as friends or more without my mom over-reacting.” I also get complaints from frustrated girls who tell me that their [...]