We often tell girls to be very compassionate towards others, continually asking them to constantly take others feelings into account, put others wants and needs before themselves and sacrifice themselves for others. While I think these are good and important traits to have, and we should be instilling them in boys as well, I can’t help but wonder about the effect this has on the way women carry emotional responsibility later in life. Women so often take on everyone’s problems on their shoulders, feeling the need to always care for everyone else first. Are these correlated, should we be concerned to see this in our children? Perhaps they can balance being caring, but not responsible for other’s emotions or problems?
