We get the looks alright: confused, charmed, captivated, and condescending. However, the looks float right over the tiara-wearing head of my little princess, who thinks hoop skirts and frilly fringes are everyday attire.
Behind her flouncing, four-year-old confidence is a daddy who isn’t afraid to help her attach a crown to her head, search out the last slipper from under the bed, and, to give the weary princess a piggy-back ride when the time has come for her to take those magically uncomfortable slippers off at last.
I’m not sure if this is a stage all girls go through, but I think it is a perfectly lovely life place for fathers to tackle. This is the moment their little princesses are looking for the perfect prince, and who better to fill that role than a daddy (or any father figure) who is willing to break out pink nail polish?
During this unusual period when my husband is not traveling, I am tickled by the cute lengths he will go to make sure his princess has a magical day. It’s about dancing in the living room to Disney music, tea parties and picnics in the grass where the princess sits in the basket to avoid getting her dress dirty, and convincing our little one that hoop skirts don’t quite fit in bed with mommy, daddy, and the kitties.
I figure at some point we will grow out of the princess dresses, but I hope it won’t be for a while yet. I love my daughter’s confidence in herself at this time. Love the way she can twirl and saunter in the creek as if she is a debutante meeting her court.
I hope that her love and confidence in herself doesn’t fade even when the skirts get smaller and likely turn into jeans. I hope the adoring attention of her very first prince will give her a personal boost when she starts to doubt the cut of her hair or the way in which her body is developing. I hope as the world tries to tell her all the ways in which she is lacking, she continues to lift her chin, holding up that remembered tiara, and will tell the world right back that she is perfect just as she is.
And lastly, I hope she can always see in her father’s eyes the memory of that little princess frolicking through our lives and how nothing will ever change how beautiful she is to him. Maybe, just maybe it will be enough.
