Once upon a time

Once upon a time, there was a girl who’d never held a job a day in her life, and she lived quite the life of privilege. She was so pretty, and everyone admired her for this feature alone. One day, she found herself in quite the predicament — but never fear! At that very moment, the handsome prince was riding in on his white horse to save the day — and the princess too. Despite knowing each other for a few mere hours, they kiss passionately, profess their love for each other, and vow to marry immediately in a lavish ceremony attended by the entire kingdom. And, of course, they live happily ever after.

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Does that about cover it?

Is it any reason I despise some of the lessons that come out of fairy tales?

We don’t discourage fairy tales and princesses in our house, but we don’t actively encourage it, either. Basically it just really doesn’t come up at home — much like, say, the topic of landfills, for example.

So you can imagine my surprise when a friend asked Baby B last week, “What are you going to be for Halloween?” and without any hesitation, she answered, “A pink princess,” as though we’d discussed it before and had come to a clear decision. In fact, we’ve had her costume for a few weeks, and it is not a pink princess.

But oh, the princess stuff begins.

Honestly, I don’t mind if she does some princess roleplaying. Obviously it’s an appealing thing to young kids, and who doesn’t wish to be whisked off their feet and rescued from all their troubles in such a simple manner? I think my main desire is to stay away from the overcommercialization of princess paraphernalia, including the ever-present Disney princesses (barf! So not a Disney person in the first place). And really, that comes down to me exerting my authority as a parent to not buy all that crap. And it’s not just limited to princesses; I also feel like she can occasionally watch Elmo, but she’s not going to have Elmo plastered on every item she owns.

So really, even though my main issue is with the princess fairy-tale fantasy, the real beef is with the overcommercialization of all such things targeted to kids. Looking around the room at the daycare kids, it’s everywhere. Dora shoes and Mickey backpacks and Wiggles t-shirts. There’s a seemingly endless supply in the marketplace, and parents have bought into it big time, just like these companies want.

But that doesn’t mean we have to play that game. After all, I’m too busy waiting for my knight in shining armor to come along.