Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Surrender

princess

When Anna was little, she refused to wear dresses. I admit to being a little disappointed, but mostly I was relieved. David and I had instituted a no-pink rule, convinced that somehow this would directly translate into her becoming a strong, independent woman down the road!

Because we are anti-Disney, anti-commercialism, and anti-TV (at least for our kid!), Anna has managed to avoid a lot of the usual marketing traps that are tossed in kid's paths everywhere. But somehow, you just can't totally avoid it. Although she has never watched a Disney movie, or read a princess story, she can name every single princess from Cinderella to Jasmine and then some!

Last weekend I took Anna to a garage sale/fundraiser. There, among the kids clothes, were 4 shiny princess costumes in just her size. I could tell by the gleam in her eye that it was time to surrender.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Princess Lavender Lily Katya (which I have been told I should have named her!). For now, a girly-girl after all (albeit, a strong, independent one)!

3 comments:

Leslie said...

When Sera was Anna's age she was all about pink sparkly butterflies and skirts that ruffled and twirled when you spun around in them. I had the same thoughts that maybe she'd be too prissy or not be an individual with all this pink fluff around! Now at 11 the days of rainbow pastel princess clothes are just a memory. I see a strong, vibrant, creative girl before me. The key is having the freedom to be pink, frilly and girly one day and a grey tank top wearing independent thinker the next...that's what girls are made of. I think Anna's on exactly the right track!

La famille Fabulet-Roberts said...

I feel the same way and I know we won't be able to avoid the power rangers, bob the builder, dinosaurs, pokemon and super hero invasion. But at least we avoided the first wave of blue and pink baby clothes by not knowing the sex of the baby! Our joke during the pregnancy was: "we don't want to know because we don't want a 6 P's : Portland Pretty Pink Purple Poney Princess ...yet!"
Anna is such a pretty princess!

Anonymous said...

The spouse-unit and I had a firm, we thought, anti-pink rule; but I'm not sure it lasted more than a few weeks. It turns out our daughter just looks too cute in pink so we gave in pretty fast (although most of her clothes are better colors)

(the anti-tv etc etc rules still hold strong; of course those are relatively easy considering the baby is only ~14 months and we don't have a TV ...)