This week I spent a few hours with two of my favorite little girls. I got to snuggle up next to them and tell a few bedtime stories. Of course, my stories do not ever end with sleepy children... so when I was done those two girls were more full of giggles than before bedtime. It was just as things settled down a bit that Lexi showed me her Halloween costume.
She proudly and excitedly announced that she was going to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She was so excited! Every little girl at one time or another, completely believes she either IS a princess or at the very least, is totally capable of becoming one.
Cinderella got the prince in the end because she carried herself like a princess. She didn't let the fact that her best friends were farm animals, discourage her. Just think how Prince Charming must have felt the morning after their wedding. His new bride gets up in the morning when all of a sudden a bunch of birds and mice (wearing clothing, I might add) burst into the room and help her get dressed.
I don't know when exactly it happens but somewhere over the first few years, most little girls stop believing. When those girls start believing they don't deserve a prince, they stop looking at the good guys and settle for so much less of a man than they deserve.
Why do girls settle for the guy who is really a horse, and driving a coach, which is really a pumpkin. Women go out with the footman, not realizing he is a dog in disguise. And then one day, the magic wears off and there we are...
Sitting on the side of road with a busted up pumpkin, a depressing outfit and a smelly old dog. Not a pretty picture, and yet so many of us find ourselves there.
Since there is no way to know for sure when our little girls will stop thinking they deserve a prince, we mothers need to never stop reminding them. Show your little princesses the road that will take her straight up to the castle. Tell your daughters, they deserve their own Prince Charming. Tell her often why she is worthy of a King.
Our daughters need to grow up seeing father's and brother's, treating their mothers with the love and respect a queen deserves.
Our girls today need to be strong enough to head towards the castle when all their friends are okay settling for the livestock as boyfriends. Don't marry a guy unless you would be perfectly happy to have a son just like him. She can't date or marry her animal friends! I mean, seriously....Nobody wants dog or mice DNA in their children!
What can we, as mothers do? What do you do to keep your girls (just like my friend Lexi) believing they will find their prince?
What an important message about NOT SETTLING for less than we deserve! I love the way you compare things to real life in a way that makes sense to thick-headed people like me! :)
ReplyDelete(It was fun to hear my cousin singing when I opened your site.)