My grandmother (the youngest daughter) took these lessons one step further.  When my grandfather returned from World War II, he took over his family’s restaurant, and my grandmother discovered the stock market and later real estate.  As a result of growing up without a father, her interest in saving and providing for her family became a key lesson taught to her own daughters .  Although my Grandma was unable to go to college herself, she studied the stock market and became the family investment banker.  After saving for years,  she and my grandfather were able to send their three girls to college with the notion they could be whatever they wanted to be!

It was now the 60′s, and by the time my Mom and her sisters graduated from college the country was wild with change, but tradition still battled against social evolution.  Even at the peak of the women’s movement,  most women struggled with the choice between motherhood and high powered/time consuming careers (the aspiration to have it all seemed to be merely an idea – not yet a common choice).  My mother’s own feelings about education led her to become an educator herself, but she and my father quickly started their family, and she made the decision to stay at home with us.  My mother’s oldest sister made the same choice.  However, the middle sister embraced the politics of the time, and she and my uncle chose not to have children.  My aunt got a masters in social work and later went on to work for local government.  Many of her female friends became doctors, lawyers and business women – most of whom also chose not to have kids.

By my mother’s generation, the women before her got the opportunity to witness their daughters achieve what they had only dreamed possible.  For my mother and her sisters, the same is true.  But the truth remains, before something can become the norm in mainstream society and continue to evolve,  the core values of that belief system must somehow first be taught at  home. If our hope for our own daughters & sons is for them to surpass what we’ve achieved, then it is up to us to continue to pass on the basic values that give one the foundation for success.  Here are some of  the the words of wisdom passed down through the generations of women in my family that unknowingly influenced me as a young girl, and that I too will continue to pass down to the next generation…

• Never wait for someone else to save you, you have the power within you to save yourself- GrandmaGram on overcoming life’s hurdles
• Never dwell on the negative.  Be ‘happy go lucky’ and good things will come.- GrandmaGram on moving forward
  
• It’s not what you say, it’s what you DO that teaches people.- Grandma on parenting & education
• It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you have.- Grandma on saving & personal finances
  
• You can DO anything that you set your mind to.- What my mother told me every night before I went to bed.

Thanks to all the amazing women in my family and Happy Mother’s Day to the  generations of women before us and ALL the generations of mothers to come!

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