Sometimes You Have to Surrender to Princesses
“They” say that we, as parents, should let our children read what sparks their interest and love for reading. I have always believed that I’d follow this. I did manage to stick to this theory over the weekend when Kai picked out his bookstore trip pick: a Disney’s princesses treasury.
While my inner feminist was screaming, I bit my tongue and I’m actually glad that I did. The stories make women into strong role models for boys and girls and they have been quite the bedtime story choice, here, since their acquisition. Hopefully the illustrations, themselves, won’t set my son up with completely unrealistic ideals for his future partners but, hey, you know, even if it does, at least he’ll love reading, right?
(On the other hand, I was informed by the very same four year old, the other day, that nightmares are real. I did my best to assure him that this is not the case. He responded “But dreams really do come true; I heard that at Disney World”. Disney:1 Mom: 0)
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They may not be in the same Goddard class anymore but Kai and West are in sync on their expansion of choices. It started with a fairy tale compilation containing all the classics. I read West the table of contents and he makes his nightly selection. Jack and the Beanstalk was an obvious early choice with a daring young boy besting a giant. Now that we have read them all, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella get equal rotation.
The feminist in me was delighted that some of the original versions of these classics had more moral backbone than ruffly dresses and big hair. The puzzling exception being the Princess and the Pea. Sure, the mother finds a test to separate the real princess from the phonies, but who wants to marry high maintenance?
The real head scratch er of late is West asking to watch My Little Ponies.