We all want to raise our kids to have a healthy level of self-esteem, which is why we mums try to watch what we say around our tots.
Unfortunately, even the greatest of mums have no control over what comes out of a stranger's mouth.
Terri Peters from Maryland in the States was in a checkout line at a store with her young daughter when a woman standing nearby told the child that she "could be beautiful" if she let her hair grow long!
Shocked, Terri bit her tongue in the moment, but went on to write a scathing open letter for Babble.com, shaming the stranger in a bid to educate people on why they they should keep their offhand comments to themselves.
Terri had brought her four-year-old into a toy store to reward her good behaviour that day. The little girl picked out a Rapunzel doll, and the two were in the checkout line waiting to pay when the stranger started making small talk.
"What a beautiful doll," the woman said. "Her long hair is so pretty. You would be that pretty too, if you had long hair."
Terri acknowledges that the stranger likely meant no harm - but harm was done.
"I'm sure you didn't mean to insinuate that my daughter was not beautiful. You were just making conversation with a very cute little girl in the same checkout line as you."
"But please, in the future, speak with more caution to the little girls you meet. Children soak up everything, even the voices their mommas wish they could shield them from."
While the offhand comments could easily upset any little girl, they were especially hurtful for this one.
She used to have long hair, but she hated it, and would cry every day when her mum would brush it. And when she finally had her locks cut short like her mum's, she smiled wide, and decided to keep it like that.
But the comments also hurt mum Terri herself.
Saying that she felt like she'd been "punched in the stomach" hearing those words, she instantly began to worry about the effect they'd have on her daughter.
"I see the wheels turning in her mind, wondering if she should have skipped the short haircut, wondering if she is beautiful like a princess," she said.
"I see the shame and self-doubt that this small comment brings to her eyes, and I want to run from the store and protect her from the standards of beauty that our society wants to place on her."
Not only could those comments have hurt her girl's feelings, they also imply that, even at the age of four, she should already be conforming to the arbitrary beauty standards that we set for girls.
On the way home, the child told ehr mum that she wished there was a princess doll with short hair like hers.
Luckily, of all the dolls the four-year-old could have chosen, Rapunzel offered the perfect teachable moment.
At the end of Disney's most recent version of the film, the title character chops off her seemingly miles-long blonde strands — and is let with short, choppy brown locks just like Terri's daughter.
SHARE to encourage people to think before they speak, especially to vulnerable children.
