Melissa!!!! So good to hear the viewpoint of a mom with daughters - which is another important point, I don't have girls. So it wasn't even anywhere on my radar. I forget how often those of you with girls are more exposed to it - at younger ages. As you can imagine, I love your parenting style and realize from a recent cheerleading event that I worked out (when Nathan and I were hired to work three days) -- the moms at these events LIVE their dreams through their girls - you can just see it in their eyes. I watched the entire coming and going and it was something "out of this world."

Okay I gotta tell you one story real quick. There was a mom and daughter - the daughter was the spitting image of the mom. I mean, Melissa - EXACTLY.

Adorable - and of course - just like the mom.

At one point they asked me to take a pic so i did and then told the mom, "Your daughter looks so much like you -- she's gorgeous!"

The mom then says - without skipping a beat, "Oh NOOO - I WISH she looked like me. I look horrible and have completely let myself go!" - or something to that effect.

I said, "absolutely not," and was a bit horrified at her answer and terribly sad as they walked away.

Here was a woman so beautiful and it was her "genes" and own biology that clearly had an impact on how her daughter looked -- yet she dismissed her beauty instantly and made sure to praise the daughter as if it were her own.

I can already tell the daughter was extremely self-conscious and petrified that the mom would leave her - when she had to go to auditions.

Oh my - I'm getting carried away. But this - this is exactly why we can't quantify the scars it leaves behind. Anyhow - hopefully there are a lot of positives and I'm perhaps needing to weigh both to give it a fair chance.

Thanks for reading - and sorry for the epistle! 🤪