The Perilous Princess Pit

So it is pretty funny that this is my next post after I review a book about a princess! Let me just start by saying that I enjoy a good princess story as much as the next person, but I have issues with the whole "princess" mania in our society.

I hear parents often refer to their daughters as their little princess. Little girls wear disney princess clothes, carry princess lunch bags, and backpacks. So why is it that I have a problem with this? I honestly believe we are raising our daughters to be more self-absorbed than any generation that has ever come before it (and children are naturally self-centered, we are appealing to one of their least desirable character traits). By encouraging them to believe that they are "princesses" the message that we are sending is that somehow they are special compared to everyone around them. Take notice of the other motto's on girls clothing as they get older and move out of the princess phase, "spoilt", "diva", "brat". I can tell you that I have come in contact with a few of those kids too!

There is nothing more annoying than throwing a birthday party for your child and having some other little diva arrive and demand to be the centre of attention. Your child is not the center of my universe and quite frankly I usually don't think they are all that remarkable. Your child should be  the center of your universe, they should know that you think they are wonderful and special, but with a healthy dose of "everyone has gifts and talents etc..."

And if by the way you feel tempted to fall into the perilous princess pit with your wee girl; take a look at the lives of some true princesses, try Princess Diana for instance... It isn't always the Disney happy ending. Remember we get to make our choices we don't get to choose the consequences.

Happiness is...

So I just finished listening to Jian Ghomeshi on CBC. This man drives me nuts! He is the furthest thing from plain; he loves all things superficial and pretentious as far as I can tell. So he is interviewing this woman who wrote a book called the happiness project where for a year she did sort of normal low key stuff that made her happy. So Jian says to her, "does having a bestselling book help the happiness quotient?" of couse the woman responds that it does, but she says that she loves writing and that the process of writing makes her happy. With some incredulity in his voice Jian says, "so you would have been happy even if no one bought your book?"

I can't believe how shallow this man is that he can't even imagine something making someone happy unless it turns some sort of a profit. I sing every day -- it makes me happy. I do it because I love it and it makes me feel wonderful both emotionally and physically. No one pays me to sing, no one even listens to me sing, and yet it still makes me happy. Happiness is something inside of us not something that we do that others recognize. I'll hop down from my soap box now.