Beauty and the Mermaid
Posted on October 31st, 2008 – 10:43 AMBy May Chen
“Remember to hold your skirt up so you don’t trip when you’re walking,” I told Zoe, almost 5, as she sashayed out of the house in her Halloween finery.
“It’s not a skirt. It’s a tail,” she replied.
Ah, yes. After years of gently steering our two girls away from all things princess, this year, we conceded defeat. Zoe is Ariel, the Little Mermaid (thanks to Target’s contract manufacturers in China). Maya is Beauty, she who loves the Beast (thanks to Once Upon a Child).
And they are soooo happy. They could hardly sleep last night, they were so excited.
We knew the day would come. Last year, Maya was a frog and Zoe was a witch. As it turned out, Zoe was also the only witch in her preschool class. Every other little girl was a Disney Princess of some variety.
For Cribsheeters who remember my Anti-Halloween rant from two years ago, let me just say I am a changed woman. Defeated. Beaten down. Dare I say, even slightly enjoying it.
My mother in Malaysia mailed us two packs of fake cobwebs and spiders to spread around the house before the kids get home from school. (The American Halloween is now a global phenomenon…)
And yes, we’re handing out candy later, not healthy snacks.
11 Responses to "Beauty and the Mermaid"
My 5 year old’s class went around the room the other day and told everyone what they were going to be for Halloween. There were 5 Snow Whites plus various others from the pantheon.
Amazingly, my Zoe, who owns a variety of the regalia and asked yesterday if she could wear her crown of school pictures, decided *not* to be a princess.
She’s going to be a scary girl. Only, if you ask her she says she’s going to be an ‘all black girl’ (she’s white) meaning she’s going to wear all black. We keep re-phrasing it for her hoping she’ll start copying our ’scary girl’ description. So far, no luck.
They don’t wear their costumes to school, though.
I too have been trying to avoid the whole princess fiasco for as long as possible. And I too have been beaten into submission - pick your battles, right? Yes you can be a princess, but you have to sit still for 5 minutes every day to practice your cello. (And sit up straight like a princess while you do so or your crown will fall off.)
But luckily, last year she wanted to be a “good witch” and picked out a greenish/purply fairy costume at Target - I pulled off the wings, we added a sparkly black witch hat, and voila, good witch. This year she decided the witch dress will be a princess dress. Add the dress-up Cinderella crown and glass slippers that she got for her birthday and no Halloween costume shopping for us this year. She may insist on some makeup, but prefers mommy’s eye shadow and blush to “pretend makeup” anyway.
I’m due to have a baby girl next year and I’m already dreading the “princess” stuff in general. I’m glad I’m not the only one out there! My sisters and I were never into the princess thing when we were younger, so I don’t quite get it….
Thank goodness I only know how to make boys. The older one is a farmer, in overalls, a flannel shirt and a John Deere hat. His little brother is a cow, in a costume I bought a few years back only to realize it didn’t fit the kid I intended it for.
So far no requests to be Princesses, Disney or otherwise!
Beware, Zoe’s boy cousins were the ones who got her into princesses in the first place! At her birthday party last week they fought over who got Beauty’s dress and who got Cinderella’s!
But, really, it’s fun to complain about but not really all that bad. When we make up our own princess stories we always have them doing fun things and helping each other out. We’ve tried to have Princess Leia officially join the club. When I read the stories I try to drop the descriptor ‘beautiful’ out since it’s in every other sentence.
You can really try and mold it to your own purposes. Princess get to wear pretty dresses but they’re brave and good friends!
I was a princess 3 years in a row when I was a kid. They had to wrest that sceptor out of my fist. My mom made my dress out of filmy curtains and my dad made my wand out of wood.
I’m hoping we can hold off on the Disney branded stuff for as long as possible, but I know that day may come.
I think this may be my last year with any say, so M is a bee, and I am a bee keeper (10 dollar hat from the army surplus store)
As for candy, we’re going to the grandparents in Red Wing to surprise them. They give out pop, which she will NOT be getting any of. The candy she got from trick or treating at daycare will be eaten by her parents, with the exception of the animal crackers given out by one of the businesses. They totally win.
Gosh, what is it with all this overly girly stuff?! I tried to find a bunny costume for my 2-year old daughter and the only one I could find in the stores involved a skirt with bunny ears - - what bunny wears that? I find it so frustrating at how genderized everything is even for toddlers - can’t they just be little kids and not little ladies or men? Luckily, I talked her into being a duck again this year. It was that or spending $50+ for a costume online.
In my next life, I may just start a clothing line of fun, gender-neutral, colorful clothing for kids - there has got to be more to life than pink and blue!
Oh, I meant to throw this in earler. Don’t I have any work to do today? [yes]
We introduced the ‘Pumpkin Fairy’ this year. The girls can keep 5 or 6 pieces of their fave candy and then put the rest on the front step in a basket.
In the morning they will come out to find that the Pumpkin Fairy has taken their candy and replaced it w/a gift.
All chocolate candy will be consumed by me after their bedtimes in the weeks to come. My husband can have everything else.
Another mom who didn’t win the princess battle here. After a strawberry, puppy, cow, and witch for her previous Halloweens, my four year old is Belle from Beauty and the Beast this year. I tried really hard to talk her into an animal costume; her brother is a monkey. She was not having any of it. She toyed with the idea of tinkerbell for a while. Finally, realizing I was not going to win, I steered her toward the Belle costume, thinking it looked like the warmest (ok, I use this term very loosely!) of the Princess options. There is a slight issue with the shoulders though . . . its an off the shoulder dress, which I really was not paying attention to. Daycare emailed me a picture which I forwarded to my husband. He was not imrpessed with shoulder skin showing! Next year I will have to look at that ahead of time. Live and learn!
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Sherry, we have tried to infuse the princesses with sporty/courageous/intelligent traits, to no avail. Zoe was playing with her Snow White and various combinations of gowns and tiaras when her daddy asked her where the soccer outfit was. She replied firmly: “Princesses don’t play soccer. They just sit and look beautiful.”
Aiya.
J., we put a little t-shirt under the Ariel costume to keep her chest and shoulders warm!
