- Amy L. Morrison likes surprises.She likes them so much that she waited to find out the sex of her children until they were born."Its a girl" were the words for the first. The second time: "It's a girl." After five "It's a girl" moments, her house became known as "the house of hormones," said Morrison, co-presenter of the session "Daughters of Our Heavenly Father: Raising Daughters and Granddaughters" at the BYU Women's Conference May 2.Morrison, a former stake Young Women president and current Mia Maid adviser, said, "The world says that unless we're skinny enough, pretty enough," have great hair and makeup and wear designer clothes, "were not good enough. Satan wants us to believe we're inferior, and that, of course, is a lie."Mothers must be examples and role models, she added. A key is to help daughters recognize their talents and develop new ones."Skills in the home are being lost," she said, "but we as mothers have a responsibility to teach them."In addition, she said, "Modesty should be taught from birth so it becomes a way of life, not an issue." If mothers dont take an interest in their daughters, someone else will. And because one in four teen girls in the United States has a sexually transmitted disease, she said, mothers need to talk to their daughters about morality or theyll hear it somewhere else.Morrison said she asked her daughters to tell her what they liked about growing up in their home. Their responses:The personal time spent with them was great.
- They appreciated their mother acting interested in and caring what they did.
- They were grateful for a clean home. And they were helping to keep it clean, Morrison said.
- They were grateful that their parents treated each other with love and respect and showed faith.
- They were glad their mother could laugh and let her hair down.
- They were grateful for expectations and guidelines.
We cant rely on others to raise our children, Morrison said. We must teach them in our homes.Session co-presenter Leslie J. Oswald said she has tried to teach her daughters to "Be yourself — but be your best self."Oswald, a former stake Young Women president and Relief Society teacher, said she taught her granddaughter to say: "I'm cute, I'm smart, Grandma loves me."She advised the audience to give daughters a "tender mercies" diary to let them write down the tender mercy moments in their lives — daily events, even little things. "Heavenly Father trusts you," she said. "He has entrusted you with daughters."She said her extended family of 33 gets together once a month for family home evening. She expects a spiritual experience, but "I find a zoo. But we do it."She offered an acronym STAND to help parents raise worthy daughters: Scriptures, Temple And prayer Night and Day.