I have a four year old daughter and she is turning into quite the girly-girl. Part of me could blame the gifts that others give her, but I'm not going to knock anything that generous friends and family want to give. But recently I've come to realize that I haven't helped much in this area. She is my only girl, will be my only girl. And as much as I want her to play sports, climb trees and skin her knees to build character, I also want her to enjoy being a girl. Some of this has already come back to haunt me though. I wanted her to be comfortable wearing a dress and we are currently in a stage where she wants to wear nothing but a dress. I wanted her to have pretty hair (sounds silly but the girl was near bald for the first two years, so hope for hair is well founded) and now she sits patiently for me to fix it only to undo the braid, pull out the rubberband and lose the barrettes mere minutes after leaving my watchful care (aka preschool).
Our latest interest is the world of all that is girly and pink is Barbie. Grandma got her one for Christmas, as well as a horse for her to ride. Here we are only 6 months later and she has about 7 of them, several being Princess barbies. And don't get me started on the movies. If I never have to watch another bad CGI fairy tale with Barbie worked in as the heroine, I will be a happy woman. Unfortunately, I let her watch one this morning and if I want to get anything done this afternoon she may get another one. They have turned into great motivation for her to behave, darn perils of kiddie bribery.
An unexpected side benefit to growing up Girly is watching my husband shudder in horror as his son takes interest in anything that isn't considered to be boyish. I get a lot of amusement out of watching him recoil when our 2 yo asks for a doll, wants to dress up with sissy or picks a Barbie movie to watch. My husband never would claim to be an enlightened male, he likes boys to be boys, mostly out of old-fashioned thinking. I can't help but take a bit of pride in myself and my kids for being flexible in this area and my mind wanders to one key thought: At least they are sharing.
