Princess diaries…

Last week there was an article about a man who (quite admirably) sought a piece of land to own to make his daughter’s dream of being a princess become a reality. At first, I dismissed the headline but there was tugging to read the article that I just couldn’t shake. So I read it.

All I kept thinking was what are we REALLY teaching our kids when we go out of our way to make their dreams (such as being a princess) a reality?

I mean…are we to assume that the dads of the hundreds of thousands of little girls in the world who wanted to and still want to be princesses (myself included), didn’t love us because they didn’t find unclaimed land in some war-torn part of the world to claim for us so we could be legit princesses?

Or rather did they teach us that we could quite easily use our imagination to go to beautiful lands far, far away (read: our backyard) and rule over our sisters, brothers, cousins and friends with whom we would play? Did they know that oh too soon, before we even found a prince with whom we’d rule our kingdom, the princess stage would be over and we’d want to be a scientist, teacher or astronaut?

The truth is that as parents, we have to think about the lessons that we teach our kids by catering to their every whim and fancy. Now, I as much as any other parent want to show and prove to my kids that they are loved. But to me, loving them means to building them up, listening to them, supporting and encouraging them. Loving them looks like taking the time to have pretend ‘Princess Days’ where they get to choose breakfast, lunch and dinner, get to wear fancy dresses and put on their mom’s heels.

Because if every time they wanted something we delivered, that does nothing to prepare them for the real world. Because moms and dads, we’re not training our kids for a day, we’re training them for life.

And to all of you who would go off and claim land to make your sons and daughters, princes and princess, that royally sucks, because my kids will may have to work with their overly entitled butts one day.

All I can say is thank God this little girl wanted to be a princess and not a mom! Crazy to think what her dad would have done to make that ‘dream’ come true. Sad really.