We have entered princess hell.
Where did I go wrong?
- I took my prenatal vitamins regularly.
- I let her play in mud with the hose (and she LIKED it).
- I’ve never purchased those VILE sparkling shoes.
- I never read her THAT kind of story.
- I even read her Princess Edna on a semi-regular basis, just to inoculate her against such silliness.
- I’m one of the few women I know who truly looks good in a pair of steel-toed work boots (that was another life…we’ll talk about that later)
- For Heaven’s sake, I own two pairs of Birkenstocks and have even had one re-soled.
And all to no avail.
I guess I got some fore-warning. Kate used to regularly find my skimpy, lacy under-things and choose the purple or pink ones for me to wear. Doesn’t she know those itch? She would hunt down that pair of purple alligator mules (can we say “impulse buy”?) and ask me to put them on. She drags out my silk negligees and asks me to let her wear them. She likes My Fair Lady and is still looking for that one movie about three drag queens that we’ve now hidden.
And then she found one of my husband’s impulse buys: Cinderella III–the movie where Disney redeems that ninny, Cinderella, by giving her some spunk and backbone. Rome had it stored on top of our tall bookshelves and Kate saw it from her little two and a half year old height. I guess she has good vision. In a moment of sheer idiocy, I agreed that she could watch a bit of it. That must have been the day that I experimented with cocaine…oh wait, I’ve never done that. Perhaps I can blame it on limited cerebral function secondary to sleep deprivation.
So now she’s princess-crazy.
She can recognize them, you know.
And they’re everywhere. There are princess gift bags, princess sippy cups, princess plates, princess sticker books, princess pj’s…and princess underwear. In what will probably turn out to be the second worse parenting decision I’ve made in the last 30 days, we bought some. And using the words of one more experienced, “Katie, the princesses don’t like to get wet, so we need to put the pee pee in the potty.”
I’ve lost my mind…and deadened my soul. Just a little bit.
So Jen, do I just make this stuff slowly disappear? Do I replace the princess dress-up stuff with the other dress-up stuff she’s getting for Christmas?
Or does “Nurture” have so little influence over “Nature”?
Alice loved princesses and that was it. There is something about those girls…but she will still play in the mud.Love,c
Besides the undies – brilliant – don’t encourage, but don’t forbid. “My, that cape is fun! I love how it catches the wind” or “The stones in the crown are really beautiful, which gem do you like best?” not “You are such a pretty princess.” Although remember, no rules apply to Grandmothers and it is useless to try an apply them to aunts – they can say she is as beautiful as they want. It will pass or it won’t. In either case she is beautiful in both satin and in mud.
Also, remember, Miranda was a princess for Halloween when she was three. We just tried to keep it generic or historical and never introduced the whole Disney connection – which wasn’t difficult since I haven’t seen any of the movies and Miranda was generally too scared of them to have any interest.
Cousine 2 says: I think Katy should learn all of her princesses! Not just Cinderella!
Cousine 1 says: I think Katy looks cute as a princess. I want to print these pictures and take them to school for show and tell.
La Tante dit: We all need to discover our inner princess. Resistance is futile! Why else would you have purple alligator mules? or ribbons on your steel toed work boots? LOL
I’d forgotten about using grossgrain ribbons for my work boots! Happy memories!
Hi Kelly,
This post cracked me up!! That bit about the princesses not wanting to get wet was good.
Caroline