Or, Perhaps It's Because I'm Your Garden Variety Sucker.

I have written before about my feelings re: The Princessification of America's Girl (andsometimesboy) Children.  I don't have any real new feelings on the issue.  It may be that my kid is almost two and has heretofore shown no big interest in 'The Girls,' whom, incidentally, she's always called 'Babies.' (I've, er, never felt the need to correct her.)  She has been so consumed by the Street of Sesame, that the only conversations that we've had about ballerinas, even, were about Zoe and that fucking tutu.

Which has been F I N E with me.

I figured that I'd try to [avoid The Incessespray] ride the Sesame Train as FAR as it will take us.  And, as it turns out, it dropped us off at the shoe store today.

We approached the aisle for sandals and my kid, MY KID, points her little finger at a [nauseating, reflective, overworked, floral designed pink nightmare] pair of sandals and says this:

'Princesses!'

HUH?!

And yes, smart-asses, that IS a picture of the light-up beauties on my COUNTER and not on the store shelves.

Because I am a big enough person to overcome my own distaste for the sake of my child's burgeoning identity.

Comments

[astarte]

Oh, no!!!! Here you go!!!!! Sigh. It's all downhill for you from now on, too. The next two years or so are going to be pink, pinkety-pink. Lucky for you, I heard that there's a new princess movie coming out this fall, too!

[mimi]

Wow. Just, wow. Dude.

And that is why I shop for my kid without bringing her with me! Awful? Controlling? Fun-free? Maybe, but I just can't get past the truly awful awfulness of the princesses. Did I tell you we had the books? The box set? Hand me down? In our house for 12 hours before Pynchon and I, completely aghast at teh truly retrograde narratives, heaved them into the recycling bin.

Mind you, we do have a princess cutouts birthday card diorama we play pretend with. But that's IT, I SWEAR. Yikes.

[Lori]

I broke down about six months ago. I never mentioned them, never put any Disney movies, nothing - and yet she found them anyway. Luckily, her favorite color is still blue, which makes for some really tough decisions on her part!

[Emily]

Nooooooooo! I've been counting on your strength to be a reminder to myself to stay strong and avoid all the pricessification but now another warrior against princesses has fallen. (You can remind me of this when my sisters present me with a pink princess shower and all the disney princess dress up costumes they can find!)

[The Domestic Goddess]

I'm soooooo glad I don't have girls and don't have to deal with the princess crap. But try as I do to avoid action heroes with my boys, Bug Boy is completely obsessed. Star Wars, Spider Man, you name it. UGH!

[Manic Mommy]

I feel your shame: My four year old can name every Star Wars character. Ever. Gamorran Guards or Count Dooku, anyone?

When his older brother was four, we were just moving away from Elmo and toward Diego.

[magpie]

You might be a nicer mother than I am.

[clink]

bahaha! Another one bites the dust! The question is who was whispering to her about those ladies?
Oh and I know...I shouldn't laugh too hard...my day will come when Sesame kicks me off in that light pink alley of hell.

[Gwen Jackson]

Oh I feel your pain. My daughter, too, is developing her own identity and a very unique sense of style. She loves those garish, princessy, gaudy clothes and it's maddening. You're a good mom to humor her! I've drawn the line a few times. And I have outright refused to allow her to wear mismatched clothes. I just know there is going to be some major battles in the teen years over hair dye and piercings. But that's jumping way ahead. I hope you're feeling well!

[Mama Bub]

I believe we have the exact same granite countertops.

Hmm? What's that you say? Princess shoes? Never before have I been so grateful for the tiny, dark, cobwebby corner of boy clothes.

[Domestic Extraordinaire]

My daughter's feet outgrew her addictions with any characters a long while ago. For years I have had to listen to how it isn't far that she can't have princesses, disney, hannah montana, etc on her shoes. Poor kid got my feet & she got 'em early. By 2nd grade she was already wearing a 6 in womens. Now at age 11 we just picked up her summer shoes-in a size 10. Oy.

[Julie @ The Mom Slant]

I'm totally blinded to Princess shit now. Besides, your counters are gorgeous.

[Amelia Sprout]

Hello, I'm a sucker too. My daughter has a Dora toothbrush (yay brushing teeth), and a few other things I dare admit to. I am so sad about the loss of Sesame Street characters before I let her watch TV.

I'm just so damn giddy about her having opinions. I know that will pass soon.

[A New Duck]

This is totally going to happen to me, isn't it? It's like how people always swear before they get pregnant that they'll never wear gigantic underwear and they'll never talk about how many coochie-stitches they got from giving birth and they'll never breastfeed in public, and they'll never [insert just about anything in here]. But then we have babies and it all flies out the window.

Those princess shoes are so close to my future I can smell them. And they smell like rotten strawberries.

[*m*]

Oh, no...You've gone over to The Dark Side.

Just kidding. I know it's tough out there for you moms of daughters. Truly, I thank god daily for sending me sons so I don't have to deal with this.

Just beware of the soon-to-be tramped-up tween Dora.