A few weeks ago I was going through our upstairs storage closet. This closet only has a few things in it; our suit cases, a few coats and pieces of winter clothing, dress up clothes and a box that has the clothes that the kids have out grown. We would put more stuff in the closet but the kids like to play in there. Nothing is better then a secret fort when you are little. I remember that very well. So I was in there picking up the dress up clothes. I yelled out to Sophia who was in the other room, "Sophia! If you don't put these princess clothes away I am going to get rid of them!" And she replied, "OK. You can get rid of them."
was totally taken aback, it stopped me in my tracks. As I started to think about it I hadn't seen her in those for ages. I can't believe that my baby doesn't want to dress up anymore. I will tell you that when she was in the dress up phase I let her do it. My motto was, "You should be able to go out as a princess any time you want to." knowing that she would only do it for so long.
When she was 4 she went to the Nutcracker in her full fairy regalia. She was so cute! Sophia was so proud and everyone thought she was dressed as the Sugar Plum Fairy. She, of course, thought she had fooled everyone because they thought she was the REAL Sugar Plum Fairy. She felt sneaky because the fact that she wasn't the Sugar Plum Fairy was our little secret. She had on pink tights, a big puffy layered purple skirt with a silk ribbon at the waist with flowers and beads all around the top, a body suit that had a dragon fly motif, an old head piece from someone's wedding and of course glittery, jeweled purple wings. I let her go out in that get up any time she wanted. She wore it to Christmas Tea at the Heathman Hotel. Oh, you should have seen the smiles on all the little old ladies' faces. They almost glowed with approval.
I don't know what it is that makes us smile so when we see kids dressed up in their daily life. Perhaps it's that they don't care what anyone thinks about them, that THEY think they look and feel cool and we wish we had that strength. They don't think anything is unusual about going to Home Depot dressed as Spiderman with pink feathery wings. Or wearing snow boots, no pants and a fireman's hat (backwards) while mowing the lawn. Maybe we should dress up again and be a princess or a superhero (Or go pantless?). Why not? Why do we care so much what society thinks? Why are we so self conscious? I'm not talking about looking like a freak or anything, well, except, I guess ahhhh...... If I wear the fairy regalia out what would happen? Would someone call the cops thinking I had escaped from the funny farm? Maybe. Who knows. Maybe I should try it.
But I am off point. My point is that Sophia is out growing dress up. She still dresses up but it's usually in grown up clothes and she did comment that her wings are all floppy and can't be worn that way. But it's fading away and that part will soon be over. I love the girl she is becoming. She is lovely, thoughtful, beautiful, smart and strong and I am blessed to be her mom. I want her to be confident and self assured as well. I will miss seeing her imagination show on the outside in her clothing and try to give her the confidence to be a fairy or a princess whenever she wants. I think we'd all be better off if we dressed up more and judged others less.
was totally taken aback, it stopped me in my tracks. As I started to think about it I hadn't seen her in those for ages. I can't believe that my baby doesn't want to dress up anymore. I will tell you that when she was in the dress up phase I let her do it. My motto was, "You should be able to go out as a princess any time you want to." knowing that she would only do it for so long.
When she was 4 she went to the Nutcracker in her full fairy regalia. She was so cute! Sophia was so proud and everyone thought she was dressed as the Sugar Plum Fairy. She, of course, thought she had fooled everyone because they thought she was the REAL Sugar Plum Fairy. She felt sneaky because the fact that she wasn't the Sugar Plum Fairy was our little secret. She had on pink tights, a big puffy layered purple skirt with a silk ribbon at the waist with flowers and beads all around the top, a body suit that had a dragon fly motif, an old head piece from someone's wedding and of course glittery, jeweled purple wings. I let her go out in that get up any time she wanted. She wore it to Christmas Tea at the Heathman Hotel. Oh, you should have seen the smiles on all the little old ladies' faces. They almost glowed with approval.
I don't know what it is that makes us smile so when we see kids dressed up in their daily life. Perhaps it's that they don't care what anyone thinks about them, that THEY think they look and feel cool and we wish we had that strength. They don't think anything is unusual about going to Home Depot dressed as Spiderman with pink feathery wings. Or wearing snow boots, no pants and a fireman's hat (backwards) while mowing the lawn. Maybe we should dress up again and be a princess or a superhero (Or go pantless?). Why not? Why do we care so much what society thinks? Why are we so self conscious? I'm not talking about looking like a freak or anything, well, except, I guess ahhhh...... If I wear the fairy regalia out what would happen? Would someone call the cops thinking I had escaped from the funny farm? Maybe. Who knows. Maybe I should try it.
But I am off point. My point is that Sophia is out growing dress up. She still dresses up but it's usually in grown up clothes and she did comment that her wings are all floppy and can't be worn that way. But it's fading away and that part will soon be over. I love the girl she is becoming. She is lovely, thoughtful, beautiful, smart and strong and I am blessed to be her mom. I want her to be confident and self assured as well. I will miss seeing her imagination show on the outside in her clothing and try to give her the confidence to be a fairy or a princess whenever she wants. I think we'd all be better off if we dressed up more and judged others less.
2 comments:
Aw that is so sweet and also a little sad :( If it is ANY consolation, however, my friends and I continued to dress up all the way through middle school (we might have been losers but whatever it was fun at the time). And my best friend Maijah and I played doll house til we were 13 even though at age 9 she told me she was "too old for it". Young minds change easily . -Clara
I was thrilled when Claire was done with dinosaurs (she's 6 now and has no interest, thank God). But I will miss the dressup times.
Claire went to Trader Joe's dressed in a Little House on the Prairie getup my mom made for her. People kept staring at us and I couldn't figure out why. I knew my lime green sweatsuit was a little obnoxious, but I thought it wasn't that bad. That night I realized that people probably were wondering if Claire was a child from the FLDS church that were taken from the compound because of child abuse. (This happened in the summer about the time of the scandal.) Nope, just my little "Laura".
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