‘Why is there only ONE girl daddy?'

It was back to school and first day of school in our house this morning. My 7-year old daughter heading into 2nd class and my 4 year old son starting his first day in big school.

Over breakfast, my daughter picked up her brother's new Marvel Studios pencil case and asked a simply but extremely powerful question:

‘Why is there only ONE girl daddy? There are 6 people, there should be 3 girls.’

(Firstly, I was so impressed, what a question!)

I asked her what she thought and she replied: 'Well, I like the Lego because it has 2 girls and 2 boys and the scientist is a girl.’?

We chatted about #genderequality, why #representationmatters - and more importantly, why asking that question is always most important.

I know that Marvel, in particular in recent years, with the MCU have lead the way to have more inclusive representation within their story telling and I am always impressed with the LEGO Group and their ever growing play sets - you can be anything, you can build anything. This is less a piece about those companies' values and more about how we, as adults/parents imprint on those younger than us.

What the question really showed me is your children do listen. How you treat people and view the world reflects directly in them. You are not born with #values, you learn them, you observe them from your surroundings. You are a product of your environment.

My personal view on parenthood (besides it being the biggest challenge I have and will probably face), is that I aim to arm my children with the correct tools, beliefs and values so that when the times comes for them to make decisions, no matter how big or small, they are able too do so confidently - right or wrong! And then learn and grow from there.

I want?the next generation to be better than the last - this morning I felt a little closer to that happening.

‘Why is there only ONE girl Daddy?' - this is a 7-year old girl asking the world 'why?'. I hope the world responds.