My worst nightmare

Okay well it's not exactly my worst nightmare. My worst would be anything happening to my children, husband, family or friends.  But this.... this is right up there!

I know that you might be sick of me saying it but I AM NOT A FAN OF PRINCESSES!  Don't judge, raise your own little princesses and adore all things Disney. Whatever. De-friend, Delete or Dump me but I am just not a fan. It's hot button topic for me. Something that make me cringe and clench my jaw and just go...well.... a little suffragette.

Tonight at dinner I asked Gigi about school, What she learned, who she played with, what she did.  She told me that she played Princess on the playground.  This is a game that I have been hearing about quite a bit lately from her. She and a few other boys and girls play on the playground. The girls are Princesses and one of the boys is a dragon and another boy "rescues" the Princesses.  These last several weeks that I've been hearing about this game I have said nothing.  I am raising Gigi to be well rounded. Hubby and I play baseball and soccer with her in the backyard. She plays with the boys on the playground and rough-houses with her friends.

So tonight I finally ask about this game. There is really no point that I can see, but children's games don't need a point. It's a lot like tag {as far as I can gather} and so I ask:

Do the girls ever get to rescue the boys from the dragon?

{laughs}
No Mommy. Girls can't rescue the boys, we're princesses.

{gulp, gasp, vomit} Did my child really just say that? MY child???
Gigi, of course princesses can rescue the boys. Girls can do anything boys can do!

{more laughs}
Silly mommy!  Girls can't rescue boys because boys can rescue themselves.

Yes Sweetie, and girls can rescue themselves too! AND sometimes girls have to rescue the boys too!

{eye rolls and giggles as if I am pulling her leg}

{Cold sweat, Panic, Frustration} How did a bunch of 3 and 4 year old children do this to my child??  They only get to influence her 3 hours a day two days a week. I spout girl power - My girlfriends spout girl power - my close knit family of Mamas at Stroller Strides embody girl power - there are so so many forces and influences and strong women in this child's life everyday that speak and live and show what women can do.  How? Why?

STOP!

I know what you are thinking:
-She's only 3
-It's just a game
-It's make believe


Don't judge!  If it were just a game and the girls and boys took turns slaying the dragon - Fine! But she is telling me, No when I am telling her that girls can fight their own dragons and rescue the boys. Not cool!

So I excuse myself from the dinner table, sprint upstairs to the bookshelf and grab the Paperback Princess return to the dinner table and read to the girls. When I was done with the story, a story we have read a number of times before by the way, Gigi said: That's not a very good story.
{argh!} Wanting to tear my hair out I gave up and changed the subject.  I am still so very not okay with this!

So to my husband ,who sat next to me a few weeks ago wondering "Why?" I was so perturbed at the parents and a handful of the children in the Documentary Kick Like A Girl. THIS IS WHY!  I was appalled that 7 and 8 year old children had archaic views about "gender rolls". I was appalled when 7 and 8 year old  boys and girls were putting each other into tiny boxes; and I was furious at the parents in this day and age that supported and perpetuated these small minded, infuriating, ideas. That, was 7 and 8 year old children. My daughter is playing with 3 and 4 year old preschoolers. Kids I like very much by the way; With parents that I have grown to know and like very much over this past 8 months. So where is this coming from???

Looks like I am going to have to be a bit more on top of the Women's Lib here at home. As for right now..... I am climbing into bed and crying myself to sleep. And..... I suppose if I cannot teach the Damsel in Distress out of Gigi, I can always rely on Lula to pound the Princess out of her!

{Project Simplify}

Seriously???

Oh it's been one of those days..... The girls were up and cranky at 5:30 this morning. {here's a hint girls if you are pissy when you wake up at 5:30am because you're tired - Don't Wake Up At 5:30am!} *sigh* In a futile attempt to "make lemonade" {and I am NOT a morning person} I pulled on a pair of running shorts, my Nike's, threw the girls in the Stroller and a few cereal bars in their laps and hit the road for a sunrise run.

So, how was I rewarded for making a healthy and productive choice?  I run headlong into a gale force wind for a mile while the girls whine that they "want to go home" ; and I actually tear up at how miserable this run is shaping up to be. But I refuse to quit!  {at least in the first mile} So I fight the wind and muscle my parasail of a stroller into a wind that is doing it's damnedest to push my backward or at the very least stop me in my tracks.  I fought the elements for roughly 2 and half miles of my intended 3 plus mile run before eventually calling it quits.

Home- grab a real breakfast- and get the girls dresses for Stroller Strides.  That's when I realize that now I'm feeling pissy! Maybe a real workout and some of my sister-mamas will help me turn this day around?  They are usually the best remedy for a crabby, over tired or overwhelmed mama! Today however, No.Such.Luck.  The workout was killer but I don't know if it was the wind or the nasty allergies everyone seems to be suffering from but we were all a bit subdued today.

The girls were..... well the have been worse at Stroller Strides, but their picking at each other was getting on my nerves so I cut their post workout playtime short and piled them back into the car. Then I started to feel guilty that I had dragged them out in the insane wind this morning..... and then asked them to sit in the stroller again for an hour while I worked out..... and maybe I was being too hard on them.... So I treated them to Chic-fil-a for lunch and promised to take them swimming.  Thinking to myself that might be just the ticket for three cranky girls, a nice long swim....

So.... Here is where my day went to Hell and I never recovered..........................................................

When we got home I settled the girls in the living room, turned on a show and told them I was going to get our swim stuff.  Then I headed upstairs, peeled off my sweaty, stinking workout clothes and began to gather swim suits and towels. After washing my face and hunting for sunscreen, and throwing my foul clothes in the washer  I turned the corner to start down stairs when I hear Gigi say from somewhere near the bottom of the steps "You're gonna be in trouble." She said it so calmly and matter-of-factly that I knew I was not going to like what I saw!

What I was not prepared for was what a 2 year old, left alone for 10 minutes is truly capable of.... Lula took the step stool from the bathroom into the craft closet... got the acrylic paints down that she always wants to play with but is well aware she is not allowed to touch.... and decided to finger paint {and foot paint} my beautiful beige tile floor with Black.Acrylic.Paint!  I am assuming that Gigi discovered Lula "painting" and when she called her out for this transgression Lu started to clean it up; But not before Lula walked her covered in paint hands all the way across my wall on her way to the bathroom where she would smear the bathroom light switch, faucet sink and floor with paint. Leaving pools and hand prints and finger prints and foot prints everywhere.

Okay - I lost it!!  I did!  I was so angry with both Lu and myself that I screamed and both girls cried and then I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed the floor praying that I could get the paint off before it seeped into the porous tile and stained it forever.  The wall...well the wall was going to be a lost cause.  I must have scrubbed the anger out because by the time I got the floor clean I found the wall a bit funny. Don't tell the girls that though!

All things considered she did a pretty good job of making a nice line of clear hand prints.  I would maybe even "love" the ruined wall if she'd picked purple, or green or even orange, but nope....She picked black! I may be warming to the wall of "dirty" hand prints leading into the downstairs bathroom but that doesn't mean the day got any better or I was an happier with the girls. But - Tomorrow is a new day - Fresh; without any mistakes in it........yet!

*sigh*
Kids...

{Project Simplify}