My Prince

My daughter is a little princess-crazy. I’m doing all I can to encourage her to love other things too, and not to live in fairy tales. She didn't dress up as a princess or fairy for Halloween – she was Ladybug Girl, and she has safari and doctor clothes in her dress up box along with the wings, glitter and tulle. But, she always defaults to the long dress, fancy shoes and tiara.

We recently spent the weekend at my aunt and uncle’s house. They have a grandfather clock that chimes every half-hour (although it seemed like it was every 15 minutes!). My daughter would be coloring, playing a game, or reading a book and when the clock would chime she would drop whatever she was doing, put her hand to her face in shock and go racing off – just like Cinderella at the stroke of midnight. Sometimes, she would even leave her shoe.

I’m not overly thrilled about her “waiting for her prince” and assuming that love conquers all. But, yesterday, she was pretending to fix something and told me that her prince couldn’t help her, so she was doing it by herself. I’m happy she’s a self-sufficient princess who doesn’t need a man. Where was her prince? “He’s busy on his work computer.”

- Commuter Mom