Blog Post #3-Katie Nolan

Babara Kingslover is an American novelist, poet, and essayist. She writes about social justice, and biodiversity between humans and their communities. 

I knew I wanted to do a blog post about this piece after I read the first line. In Kinglover's Letter to my Daughter at Thirteen, the first line in the text states: "Here's one secret you should know about mother's: We Spy!" I instantly made a connection to this piece because as a daughter, my mom has an uncanny ability to somehow always know details about my life without me ever telling her. It's crazy, nerve wracking, yet one of the many things that makes my mom who she is.

In this piece, Kingslover is able to give a different perspective on the mother/daughter relationship compared to other author's we have read in class. Many of the author's, such as Sylvia Plath, seem to give their audience a different perspective of being a mother. They narrate they works by giving their own point of view on motherhood. Some positive, some negative, such as Plath's interpretation in The Disquieting Muses, when she states "I learned, I learned, I learned elsewhere, From muses unhired by you dear mother." These author's all describe the complexities of being a mother, and the things they abdicate or sacrifice  in order to give their children better opportunities then they had as children. Kingslover however, narrates her text differently.

All mother's are proud in their children's accomplishment. Speaking on behalf of mother's, it is safe to say that nothing makes them happier then to see their children succeeding in things that enhance their childhood, and and make them who they are as a person. Babara Kingslover narrates this piece differently because rather than pay homage to her accomplishments as a mother, she recognizes and glorifies her daughter's maturity that she  doesn't where she learned it from.

All mother's want the best for their children. Kingslover congratulates her daughter throughout her work by saying things such as "I know because I used to hate myself, and now I don't. You never never did it seems. You like who you are, you work hard at whatever you do, you're kind to your friends, you show compassion for the world." Maturity in children, especially in adolescents is something that parent's often say are the most difficult years in raising a child. Kingslover shows this when she says "adolescence is a pain!" It is when they rebel, that children discover their voice, and learn who they are as an individual. In this piece, Kingslover exuberates her confidence in her daughter, and that she "eventually ...see's the common denominator, especially as a mother as a girl child, was to protect and value every part of your personality and will, even when it differed from mine."