Cinderella Just Got Quacked

My daughter has not cared about a single princess in the six years she has been on this Earth. I remember when she was about eight months old I bought her Disney Princess sippy cups. She didn’t touch them. The only time she was slightly interested in a princess was Fiona the Ogre from Shrek. Lovely. We own three princess DVDs, and they have been ignored in order for us to get our fill of the Imagination Movers. I get all kinds of protests if I suggest we watch one.

Cinderella and all her princess buddies get more mud thrown at them than a politician. I myself am guilty of this. She cleans and cooks for the sisters and the only goal is to have this big beautiful wedding and live happily ever after while everyone cries that they aren’t her? I wanted to teach my daughter not to be a “princess.” She would be a strong, intelligent, independent woman. Then she didn’t develop in the normal way. I told myself that I would be a good mom, and that I wouldn’t “expect” anything. I knew not to have high expectations before I brought her home from the hospital. I was in therapy and self-help groups growing up and I knew better. It was the little things that got me. I expected that my daughter would walk and talk, and it didn’t happen. Were my expectations too high when my 18 month old was still crawling? I didn’t know; she was my first.

About a month ago, we were going for a long drive in the car and the only DVD I could reach quickly was Cinderella. Cinderella is pretty tame. No dragons, no sharks, and no beasts being attacked by wolves. Nobody's mama is shot by a hunter. You only have to deal with a dysfunctional family, kind of pre-Harry Potter if you think about, just a nasty step-mother doting on two ugly daughters and forcing the beautiful worthy one to do their bidding. The minute I started the video the older two threw a fit, but I told them it was that or actually just stare out the windows like I had to do when I was their age. About twenty minutes into it the baby starts cracking up. I mean the kid was cackling over the mice. There is nothing more adorable than a toddler's belly laugh. Then I started laughing and the other two children start laughing, and then they loved Cinderella.

With the discovery of Cinderella, her girly girl side took over with a vengeance. She had to have the gowns and the shoes, she had to have the backpack, she wanted the dolls and she started brushing her hair. She chases her brothers around the house begging them to dance with her or help her try shoes on to see if they fit. Kenneth can fight her off but Lowell gets dragged around the playroom.

I guess I should be glad it’s Cinderella and not a different princess. Cinderella isn’t perfect, she managed to lose a shoe at a dance, I lose my keys and my glasses three times a day. Now we line up the Barbies and the Cinderella doll for “snack time,” and Kenneth the know-it-all yells at his sister that it must be tea.

Cinderella can be viewed as a girl cleaning and being a slave to her sisters and then just becoming a “slave” to a man. I don’t watch it that way now. Cinderella has given me some wonderful lessons the last few weeks. She has also helped me remember things I already knew. The first one, she “Stuck it to the bitches.” She didn’t fight or scream or make a fool out of herself. She played it cool and everyone got what they deserved in the end. The second? That magic doesn’t last forever. I remember little things, like when Frances finally walked, but then I had to get her to run. I remember two nights before Kenneth was born, she asked for “Barney” and Kevin wanted to run out and buy up every Barney in the store. Magic happens a little every day, and like Cinderella says to the Fairy Godmother, even until midnight is more than she could have asked for. In your time of need, the right people and the right things will come to you when you need them. It also gives a new spin to the idea of, “He’s just not that into you.” If that prince had his people take the shoe out and make every girl in town try it on, he definitely wanted to find her. My husband would have sold it on Ebay.

So now we have moved on to the Disney Princesses in all their glory, glamor, and commercialism. I did plan to raise my daughter on Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, and Ani DiFranco. But now, after six years of waiting for a little girl to come out, I’ll let her do it just a little longer. I am just not ready to squash it out of her yet. She can always figure out that monarchies have no real power later…..