By Paint Her in Color Founder, Laura Spiegel

It’s late, and I’m stumbling through my daughter’s room. Land mines are everywhere. Uncapped markers, discarded Legos, and paperback books pave the way to her unmade bed. It’s like a war zone in here, I mutter to myself. It’s a wonder she can find anything.

And then I see it – or step on it, rather. A dry erase board covered in one simple statement.

“I’m kind and sweet and I can share to other people and that’s how I am.”

If it weren’t a heavy board, I have no doubt it would be taped to the wall along with my daughter’s other drawings and statements. At last count, there were nearly 100 of them. Ladybugs and bumblebees and butterflies and hearts and rainbows and statements like “I can do hard things” and “Be like it” and “Do the right thing” converge like a giant wallpaper on her lavender walls.

Occasionally, these are joined by a well-placed “Don’t touch” or “Stay out,” usually aimed at her brother.

But this new one? This wonderfully astute self-affirmation? I think it’s my favorite.

Like her wall coverings, my daughter has many layers.

She is kind.

She is brave.

She is strong.

She is a good friend.

She is fierce.

She is strong-willed.

She is sassy.

She is bold.

She listens.

She observes.

She takes life in and lives it to the max.

And the fact that she distills that down to one, beautifully spot-on sentence? It makes my heart sing.

Like all the other mamas out there, I want my daughter to have a strong sense of who she is as she grows. Of what she can do. Of her value and importance in the world.

I’m forty and still struggle with this myself. At six, I think my daughter already knows.

She is kind and sweet and can share to other people, and I couldn’t be any prouder.

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