Raising This Girl

Girls.  Ugh.

I've been struggling a bit lately with Piper.  Specifically, parenting Piper.  She is an emotional being through and through.  She can turn on the cry talk at the drop of a hat.  You know that cry talk where someone's talking but it sounds like they are getting all choked up like they are going to start crying?  Yeah, that.  She does it all the time.  

She's a passionate person whether she's happy or sad.  I love that about her.  But I also get caught up in her emotions, reading into them too much and end up worrying about her.  Because, well, I'm a woman and that's what I do.  

Aside from being really emotional, she's also very social.  Neither of my kids have had a problem making friends.  I'm forever thankful for this.  However, being very social and very emotional can definitely have their ups and downs.  And on top of that, let's add being the youngest.  The youngest in the family tends to get the reputation of being spoiled.  I'm the youngest and I know this reputation well.  

So, let's wrap all that up in a nice little bundle.  There's my Piper.  

What I struggle with in parenting Piper is finding the balance between needing to intervene with how she's acting towards friends or her attitude at home versus chilling out and letting her see how her actions effect her life and relationships.  I can already see her getting caught up in getting feelings hurt at school or manipulating situations to go her way.  But on the flip side, I see an extremely confident girl who knows what she wants.  I don't ever want her to lose that.  

So with all that being said, how do you raise your daughter to be confident but kind?  Those are two qualities I want to instill in Piper more than anything.

I know some really great parents out there who survived or are surviving parenting daughters.  What advice can you give me?