Cherishing Our Daughters: How Parents Can Raise Girls to Become Confident Women. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Spring, 2000

BASSOFF, Evelyn. Cherishing Our Daughters: How Parents Can Raise Girls to Become Confident Women. New York: Plume, 1999. 278 pp. $13.95 (p).

Cherishing Our Daughters offers hope and encouragement to parents trying to guide their daughters toward emotional, physical, and psychological well-being. Combining psychoanalytical insight with the basic how-tos of loving, nurturing, and mentoring, Bassoff shows how to become better parents to our daughters and help them gain the skills to live happily and effectively. From mothers and fathers to stepparents, from single, adoptive, and divorced parents to gay and lesbian couples, Bassoff explores a broad spectrum of parent-daughter relationships and shows how they shape a girl's future. She also probes the crucial bonds between young girls and their grandparents, as well as the other significant adults in their lives. The reader will learn how to help a daughter: develop a positive self-image; overcome obstacles; protect herself; develop empathy and independence; appreciate her maturing body; and learn the true value of her inner, most private self. Revealing case studies and interviews with dozens of daughters and their parents pinpoint when and how successful parenting occurs.