Teaching Our Young Boys To Dream Big

This post is sponsored by Melanites™

As a mother, I love watching my kids dream big. All three of my boys have huge imaginations. They're always thinking up new adventures in our backyard. Whether they're in a spaceship on the way to the moon or driving an ice cream truck, their imaginations take them all over the world.I want them to know the sky is the limit to what they can dream up. We read stories and watch movies about characters that are brave enough to go scour the world. As my kids get older, we've started to talk about the stories and movies more often. This was when my four year old realized something wasn't quite right...My four year is extremely proud of his brown skin. He's always telling everyone his daddy is black and he's "brown all mixed up" because he's a little bit of mommy and daddy.I love hearing him talk about it. It makes so proud to hear how he boldly proclaims this to everyone he sees. He wants the world to know that he's Indian like daddy and American like mommy.He was the first one of my kids to ask me why there weren't more brown kids in his movies.I knew the conversation was bound to happen. I've done my best over the years to collect multicultural books and find books with main characters that look like all three of my kids.However, the reality is there aren't that many. Most of the books we found have a brown boy as the best friend or a side character.My question is what is that teaching our kids?What will our kids start thinking when they realize they're always the side character in the adventure?Will they start to modify their dreams to fit what the world is showing them?This is why it's so important that we as parents teach our kids that the sky is the limit. We need to come in and break down the limits that society has put in place for our kids.One of the ways we can do this is to make sure they're represented in the toys they have at home, their books, and in their daily lives.Today, I'm proud to be partnering with Melanites™ to bring diversity into our very own homes. They recently launched their new action pal! His name is Jaylen and he is your kid's new best friend.I loved seeing the look on my kid's faces when they pulled him out the box! They were so excited to start playing with him and go on adventures with him!Jaylen isn't just a fun toy for my kids.He is helping break down this idea that they can't do something based on their biracial identity and he's empowering them to dream big!