Guest Post by Michelle Easton
How can you be sure your daughter remains a conservative woman of faith once she leaves your home? Given toxic social media, radical indoctrination in schools, and a popular culture that promotes non-traditional values, parents can’t assume she’ll stay conservative because she went to church. The best parenting mimics the way our heavenly Father loves his children, so our default parental setting should be to return to the immutable and transcendent Judeo-Christian truths that shaped America’s founding.
Key ideas to teach include:
The source of self-worth is God, not government. This is the most important concept for a daughter to understand. Knowing she is uniquely made and unconditionally loved by God will be the cornerstone of her conservativism. Uncle Sam can never substitute for a good father and graceful mother, much less for God. So much of what is conveyed to young women suggests that affirmative action, government-funded health care and housing, and taxpayer-funded “free stuff” are what give girls self-worth. Dependency on government programs fuels socialist and leftist beliefs, since government is their god.
Family comes first as the building block of civilization. A strong, close family increases the odds of a stable, happy future for daughters. Family is the best defense against poverty and best source of love and lifelong support. Use your marriage to show her what a real loving relationship looks like, because that’s going to be her model. If you are raising your daughter alone, you can use a family-first approach by building strong supporting relationships with relatives and church families.
America is exceptional and worth defending. This concept is key to her being a lifelong conservative. What makes America so exceptional is that our rights come from God, not government. Socialists love to tear America down and dwell on past and current challenges instead of our greatness. Your daughter needs to read good history books, suggested in How to Raise a Conservative Daughter, to know there has never been a freer, more prosperous nation than America.
Knowing hard work is a virtue is the most consistent trait I’ve seen in the thousands of conservative young women I have worked with. Once they are old enough, daughters should have jobs and responsibilities that teach them the value of hard work. Leftists encourage “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work.” Unwilling to work! It’s unthinkable to conservatives. Hard work is central to both the American dream and our girls’ personal development.
A woman’s differences are her strengths. Have your daughter celebrate the natural variations between men and women. The breathtaking miracle of childbearing elevates females. Yet the Left teaches young women that having children is a patriarchal burden and inconvenience that limits their success. Help your daughter understand: the Left’s propaganda that men and women are exactly the same is a lie. (At the same time, show her there aren’t any differences between men’s and women’s intelligence.) Before she starts to date, keep her safe by teaching her how physical intimacy affects women very differently than men with the Center for Conservative Women’s booklet Sense & Sexuality: The College Girl’s Guide to Real Protection in a Hooked-Up World.
Defense of life from conception to natural death is a moral obligation. When parents impart that their daughter’s worth flows from God and teach her to respect herself and her life-giving body, she will know that life is sacred and must be defended. Our daughters need to know that abortion is the taking of an innocent human life, plain and simple. Abortion destroys a baby and damages women and their families. She must learn to stand up and speak out for the rights of the unborn and defend those who cannot defend themselves.
When your daughter leaves your home, she will be able to share these concepts and help build an even better America. Teach her to stand up for her beliefs with grace and integrity; there are plenty of good people and organizations that will help her. We conservative women can be lifelong happy warriors for our faith and policy beliefs. How to Raise a Conservative Daughter will help ensure your daughter is too.
Michelle Easton is the author of How to Raise a Conservative Daughter (Regnery Publishing, July 6, 2021) and is the president of the Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women.
