Midnight Academy

Mothers passing down the wisdom torch to their daughters

Mothers are always preparing their daughters for life -Photo by Vivek Kumar on Unsplash

One Sunday night, many years ago, I received a call from my wife, who was out of the country on a business trip. “Alex, please take Gabi to my sister's to wash her hair. The hair treatments are in the linen closet.” As soon as my better half finished relaying her instructions, the first words out of my mouth were, “Hair treatments?” A sigh came from the other end of the line, which I learned to interpret more or less as, “Well, this will be a very long conversation.”

Without missing a beat, my partner told me firmly, “Please pass the phone to Gabi.” I thought: “Gabi? What is my 5-year-old daughter going to solve that I can't?”. I decided to please my wife and placed Alexander Graham Bell's invention in my daughter's hands. She had a conversation with her mother that couldn't have lasted more than 30 seconds.

Gabi handed me back the phone and, with a firm and determined step, headed to the linen closet. She opened the door, grabbed a bundle, and began filling it with different types of brushes and hair products. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that my daughter took the opportunity to educate me a little about hair care: “Daddy, this corn-based product is to strengthen your hair. These drops are used to detangle it. This cream is to give it shine, etc.”

Marveling at the wisdom of the miniature human being before me, all I could think was, “When did you learn all that? Did your mom wake you up in the middle of the night while I was sleeping to teach you about hair products, and I don’t know what else? Is it at this Midnight Academy where daughters learn from their mothers how to work hard, keep the family together, be supportive, manage their money, excel, have a vision for the future, and dream big?”

It took me a long time to understand that there is no such thing as a Midnight Academy. Mothers teach their daughters in front of their fathers and brothers. The thing is, we don't pay attention because most conversations are about the future, and we men are very present-day. We live day to day. The brains of Eve's descendants, on the other hand, are constantly dealing with events that will happen in six months, a year, ten years… That's why, from our perspective, women are always anxious and stressed “over nothing.”

I believe, without fear of being wrong, that one of the most important gifts a man can give the woman he loves is to ask her how to help her, on the issue he thinks concerns her most. Of course, he shouldn't be offended if she lets him know she'd prefer help with a topic besides the one he had in mind.☼

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Alex Guerrero is an aspiring content creator who lives in Lawrence, KS. He’s very vocal in his displeasure over pineapple pizza. Chocolate, on the other hand, makes everything better!