There are certain milestones in a child's life that one should celebrate: first steps, first pee pee in the potty, first lost tooth...first trip to juvi...no, seriously--I am all about making a big deal about major events. Apparently, in the area that I live, the Annual Princess Tea Party ranks right up there with the rest of them.
Call it boredom, curiosity, a serious lapse in judgement, whatever, but Mountain Man and Mountain Mamma decided to dress up Mountain Child like a little princess and experience the Princess Tea Party.
But let me back up a moment. I am not the type to get excited over such events. In fact, I am the one that makes fun of them. I don't want to say that I am a feminist, because there is too much about me that is just not--but something inside of me feels very wrong to go around calling little girls princesses. I would rather call them presidents or doctors or circus performers. Perhaps it is because to me a princess is just someone who gets born into ridiculous amount of luxury and privilege. And I want my daughter to go for what she wants without it getting handed to her. But wait--I really am letting all of that women's studies 101 crap get me thinking too deeply--princesses are fun for little girls, bottom line. So I suppose this was my line of thinking when I went.
My attitude was really good at the beginning. Like I said, I even dressed Mountain Child in her filliest little dress and sparkly shoes. She really did look darling. We arrived and went ahead and got into line for the big Picture with Cinderella in Her Carriage. I couldn't believe the length of the line. It was about as long as it would be to get on Space Mountain at Disney World. There were people everywhere. And not one little boy was to be found anywhere. The thing that I noticed right away was how UNDERDRESSED Mountain Child was. The other little girls had the most elaborate princess dresses that I have ever seen. There were even girls with HAIR PIECES in their hair. Other girls had on makeup, and I swear that I saw at least two moms in princess costumes of their own. Seriously? I had just entered a frilly, pink and really creepy Princess Twilight Zone.
But dressing up is fun. So why not? The kids love it, right? I decided to hold off on the rolling of the eyes and remember that I am not here to score cool points (because I have lost all of mine I accumlated over a lifetime in this one little outing anyway), I am here so Mountain Child can have a fun time. And she was having a reasonably fun time until she saw the Frog Prince. The Frog Prince was this huge green frog creature in a cape. He was Cinderella's footman. And Mountain Child was positively terrified of him.
After the Frog Prince sighting, it was all downhill from there. We tried to get her to take a picture with Cinderella or some of the other Disney Princesses, but she just gave them all a dirty look and even tried to swat poor Sleeping Beauty. And to top it all off, that stupid Frog Prince was everywhere we were. It was like he was trying to put my kid in therapy. We gave up and headed home.
Mountain Child did, however, acquire a magic wand while we were there. She thought it made a great weapon/fly swatter/hair brush. It kept her busy long after all of the glued-on glitter wore off. And looking back on the outing, it makes me proud of my kid. She isn't obsessed with princeses. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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