Last week I took the older two girls to the mall to pick out their dresses for the father-daughter dance. I can still easily please the Preschooler so long as I choose a “fancy” looking dress, but the older two have become far more opinionated about the whole selection process. If last week’s shopping outing is any indication of things to come, I fear we are in deep, deep trouble. The 4th Grader, at the tender age of ten years and four days old, is already convinced that my goal in life is to cramp her style. {Please know that the girls’ Christmas lists this year included requests like fake nails, fake eyelashes, and wigs}. I’ll admit that I miss the days of smocked dresses, but I don’t feel like all of my picks were deserving of an eye roll. Meanwhile the 2nd Grader, at eight years old, was upset because I wouldn’t give consideration to any of the floor length prom dresses she was eyeing for the occasion. In the end, I would estimate that we tried on twenty plus dresses before making a selection. Next time I will pack snacks, a friend, and a Xanax before heading out to the mall on this sort of mission.
Even though not everyone was pleased with their dance attire, I think they were all still excited about going. Some were more cooperative than others with my pre-dance pictures.
In the end, I think they all had a good time except the Preschooler did’t care for this year’s punch and was upset they didn’t serve chocolate chip cookies. This wouldn’t normally ruin someone’s night, but when the refreshments are a primary motivation for going it can put a damper on one’s mood and overall desire to dance…
…or to enjoy oneself at all.
I saw this video yesterday and told the Spouse he should be thanking his stars he only had to go to a dance and not a DANCE CLASS with the girls.
I worry a lot about raising kids {most especially girls} in a world that is moving so fast it changes overnight. My goal is not to cramp anyone’s style or crush anyone’s spirit. I just want them to be grounded by a strong sense of who they are and where they’re headed in spite of my controlling tendencies and our culture’s misguided messages. One of the biggest challenges in parenting is trying to instill in our children truths we still haven’t fully embraced ourselves. At 39 I still have my doubts about who I am, what I’m doing, and what I should be doing as compared to others. But, earlier this week I saw the passage below. I love how these verses {Galatians 5:25-26} read in The Message:
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
This is what I want to believe and I want my girls to believe. All of us have interesting things to do with our lives. And, God is a huge fan of originality.
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Speaking of originality, parenting three girls with distinctly different personalities is challenging but rarely boring. I was cleaning up the Preschooler’s room earlier this week and saw this scene at her dollhouse.
Later I asked what was going on with Cinderella being tied to a string and she said, “The ‘roberts’ broke in and took her and tied her up.”
For whatever reason, both the Preschooler and the 2nd Grader have confused the word “robbers” with “roberts.” So, in their book, a “robert” is a dangerous person who steals things, or in this case, steals people. Normally the adventures around the Fisher-Price dollhouse aren’t quite so dramatic, but this is what happens when the Spouse plays with her. They get into my twine and create elaborate kidnapping scenes. This is all fine {and certainly very original} until she starts obsessing about the possibility of “roberts” lurking outside her window. Just yesterday she asked me, “Do you think a robert might steal my lovie?”
I feel pretty certain that her brown bear lovie is pretty low on the list of pawnable items for a ‘robert.’ But, I can’t be certain. What I do know for sure is that I might want to encourage less originality in the dollhouse and more originality on the dance floor. Maybe next year I’ll just let the 2nd Grader go with a floor length spring ball gown after all.
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