My daughter and I play Barbies on the weekends sometimes.

So I’m doing my usual Barbie schtik, which I think is just hilarious, where I’m having a conversation with all the Barbies—little pep talk, if you will—about how, in addition to being beautiful, they are also brilliant, talented, and unique, and Aislyn goes: “Can you just play Barbies and not say anything?”

I laughed so hard, I peed a little.

Shockingly, Aislyn has as much interest in my feminist manifesto as I had in my mother’s everyday-is-Sunday sermons!

When I was growing up, it was, if you can believe this: “Little girls should be seen and not heard,” and “That’s not ladylike.” Aislyn, on the other hand, hears: “Never be afraid to be who you are,” and “You can’t do anything you want to do, be anything you want to be.” I mean, she also hears, “Clean your room,” and “Don’t forget to put on deodorant!” But you get the picture: times have changed.

When I get up on my social equality soapbox, I mistakenly belive that my daughter will be impressed and inspired by her mother’s fierce independence and determination.

What I forget is that Aislyn doesn’t know any different. Not yet. In the younger grades, you are set up with the beliefs that you are innately beautiful, unique, and special with the same potential as anyone else to succeed.

They don’t teach you about sexism, women’s liberation, or the ERA until at least high school. She doesn’t know, yet, that men still make more money than women in every profession except for modeling and prostitution. Doesn’t yet understand the unfair emphasis still placed on women’s looks over all else.

So, at this tender age, Mama’s rhetoric is lost on her.

But can we stop for a minute and appreciate the innocence of this? To her, I’m just preaching to the choir. “Yeah, okay, Ma, let’s try to stay focused on the story.”

In a few years, she’ll learn why Mama worked so hard to try to impress upon her that she is more than a pretty face or a trophy wife. But for right now, let’s just shut up and play Barbies.