You're always ignoring me. It's inappropriate. It hurts my feelings and it makes me sad and mad. You should listen to me when I talk to you, Ainsley informed me during our Mommy/Daughter Day on Saturday.

You're right. I'm sorry. You have a valid point and you have right to expect my attention. I was thinking about my work. It's hard for me to stay in the present moment. My mind wanders. I was writing in my head. It's terrible habit, I explained.

I don't have that habit, she said.

You're lucky, I told her. You never daydream? I asked.

I have. But it's easy to stop, she said.

I'll try harder. Thanks for being patient with me. I love you, I said.

I love you too, she said.

I tried my best to stay focused and only had ask her forgiveness a few times.

We went garage saling and window shopping.

We went out for Chinese food.

She got her Orange Belt in Taekwondo. She forgot her jacket. She was brave. I was proud.

We went to McDonalds.

We went walking at the big park and ate handfuls of wild blackberries we found by the pond.

We came home and colored poster-sized kittens and puppies with fresh markers on the trampoline.

She said it was her favorite day and I thought it was awesome too.

Here's the thing about daughters. They grow up.

Since 72% of women work now it seems reasonable to assume that one of the things we should be doing as parents is to improve the work environment for women so that it's an equitable and empowering environment for our daughters when they get there.

Mothers, you KNOW how it feels to choose to go back to your career or stay home with your baby during a woefully short sleep-deprived 6-12 weeks. That 12 weeks was one of the most anxiety-ridden of my life.

Why? I was torn between two unacceptable choices. Quit my dream and nosedive into poverty or Abandon Baby 50-60 hours a week. Some "choice!" Ha!

I don't want my daughter to face that devastating decision. I want America to choose to respect motherhood, by joining the rest of civilization in blessing them with maternity leave instead of blowing a bunch of hot air about "family values."

I'm done having babies. But, my daughter has yet to begin. One of the biggest changes I want to see happen is for her to have a reasonably long maternity leave that respects both her role in motherhood and her role in the workplace.

Fighting for longer paid maternity leave is one of the gifts I aim to give her future self.

Momsrising.org is a bipartisan action group made up of mothers fighting for women's rights. Mothers rights are women's rights. Women's rights are human rights.

Other issues Momsrising takes on include: fair pay, breastfeeding rights, maternity and paternity leave, after-school programs, education, healthcare, sick leave, pollutants in bottles and toys, television and advertising, and flexible work hours, everything that concerns families.

They lead the way for women, housewives and career women equally, to cast aside apathy and become active participants in the making of policy.

Becoming "politically active" with Momsrising is usually as simple as shooting a pre-prepared letter to your representative letting them know how you want them to vote on a particular bill. I do not exaggerate when I tell you this takes about 2 minutes of your time.

I often hear people discount the value of a letter. Don't - that's a mistake. If Momsrising takes on an issue then know that you will be joining thousands of other women, other moms, in writing that letter. One letter probably goes unnoticed. But 60,000 letters causes our representatives to create examination committees, write bills, and change laws.

Another way to advocate for your daughters' future is to buy one of their totally hip t-shirts that say clever things like, Changing More Than Diapers, Raising Children, Raising Consciousness, All Moms Are Working Moms, and adorable little onseys declaring, I need a Change, How Bout You?

Here's what I want for Mother's Day - Political Change. I'm going to declare my intention to seek change by wearing one of these shirts to my mommy group so the other moms, facing the same mothering issues I am, ask me "Hey, what's Momsrising?" Then I'm going to do everything in my power to politicize some Mommies.

Won't you join me in changing more than diapers?

I'm giving away another copy of A New Earth via the Bloggy Giveaway.

Mother's Day is coming, and what better gift than to acknowledge she's more than "just your mother?"

Last night Eckhart and Oprah touched on the idea that attaching worry (anxiety, anger) to our goals will defeat them. But if we can learn to stay centered in our core self and unattached to the outcome we will have access to divine power.

I've been struggling with this issue and the mission of So Sioux Me to empower girls.

I want to inspire parents to be able to take empowering action for their daughters and especially to teach our daughters to take action for themselves.

Yet, if what you focus on expands and taking ego-centered, surface action against something only makes what you are against into bigger problems then how do I complete my God-inspired mission?

The woman from the Bodi-Tree in California asked a relevant question in regards to pursuing her mission to create a green environment.

It's a little confusing and I have difficulty articulating the complex spiritual aspects of this so I'll use an example:

- Take the war on drugs and the war against poverty, which have served to expand the drug problem and the poverty problem. The last thing I want to do is make the beauty ideal narrower, increase gender bias or further sexualize girls.

Obviously, through So Sioux Me, I want to encourage positive action and not expand the problems I aim to solve.

Because it is a new skill and a new approach, I've likely taken a wrong step or two - especially during those moments when I've reacted with indignant and shocked outrage - yesterday's Gossip Girl story might serve as an example of indignant outrage that may not be effective. From what I understand, it's the emotional indignation and shocked outrage that will defeat our cause.

Rest assured - I am doing my best to operate from my core sense of self and my core sense of The Divine and of consciousness. I do meditate and pray quite often about my mission to empower girls and parents of girls on So Sioux Me.

Rather than fight anything my divinely-inspired missions are to expand the beauty ideal, provide powerful action steps, validate parents' instincts when confronting media and marketing, expand all possibilities for girls, encourage women and girls to grow a self esteem and positive self image, educate about sexualization is and how to approach desexualization of girls, encourage responsibility and even legislation that require and allow healthy boundaries necessary for childhood.

Leave a comment about So Sioux Me's mission or A New Earth and you're entered to win a copy of A New Earth. It might change your life. I'll draw a NAME (no anonymous entries) on Friday.

By Tracee Sioux

I found Chapter 1 in Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destinyboth validating and empowering. For me it was great to have my feeling of bluffing as a professional validated in a historical sense. Orman brings home the point that women have not, historically, filled the role of workers or the role of people who have their own money. When speaking of a collective conscience as females 25 years is like 5 minutes and the result is that our “new money” is still something we don’t really know how to handle yet.

This could not be more true. It’s also incredibly relevant when trying to empower a daughter. Since I am learning this for the first time I think it will be most empowering to my daughter to work out the kinks out loud. (Rather than whispering about money as previous generations have.)

Our girls need to understand that the world is still full of “firsts” for women. First woman Speaker of the House, Thanks Nancy Pelosi, first woman running for President, Thanks Hillary Clinton, etc. I think it would be a mistake not to give our daughters the historical perspective that we don’t have very much experience at incorporating work into our family lives and it’s frankly, difficult and full of sacrifices and unforeseen pitfalls.

Unrealistic expectations of perfection can be enormous burdens for women. We need to be careful not to pass our judgment about each others’ work vs. stay-at-home choices to our daughters. The most empowering thing to pass on to girls today is the awareness that they will have choices. Ideally, we can send them off into the world empowered to make either choice, whichever they feel most comfortable with or with whatever combination they can make work.

Either way, we need to send them into the world expecting to be valued whether they make money or not. Orman beings out the point that women are undervaluing themselves if they stay-at-home and don’t make money AND they are undervaluing themselves if they go out and work.

In Chapter 1 she also says this is only to be expected considering how new access to money is for women. Why would they know what to do with it or how to handle it? It’s not as if these lessons were ingrained in our collective consciousness for millennia as they were for men. It’s a great point.

Yet, for our daughters surely we can teach them better and give them sound words about money. I know the classic psychology of say Dr. Phil would have us believe that children shouldn’t be burdened with adult things like the family finances.

I would argue that such “protection” doesn’t empower our girls to go out into the world and make good financial choices. I think we should be working out the kinks “out loud” with our kids, daughters especially. How can we help them avoid financial pitfalls if we continue our bluff or never admit to mistakes?

On my mother's side I'm the first generation career woman. On my father's I'm the third. Either way, that's not much experience. But, my daughter will have me telling her what to watch for, what to think about, what to avoid and what to do. Hopefully, she won't feel so much like she's faking it.

For more on Chapter 1 and how we can get on the same side as women, check out BlogFabulous. By the way, this is the first time I’ve ever led a virtual book club (or any book club for that matter) so I am still working out the kinks of how to have an online conversation between two websites (maybe I should’ve just picked one, but it’s an important issue). Please cut me some slack.