DIY Corporate Mom: The Irony of Christmas

Well, hell just froze over this Christmas. There was something about the season that made my careful parenting decisions turn around and laugh at me in the face.

The silliest of which was that pink princesses finally snuck their way into my child’s fancy. Ladybug Girl really, really wanted this for Christmas:

Baby Alive Sip-and-Tinkle Princess. Holy crap.

This doll was the antithesis of all my hopeful values for my little girl. Every single one of these things is blonde : no effort on diversity whatsoever. Worst of all, she was a princess. She was screaming pink and purple in-your-face at the premium toy space at the gondola-ends of the shelves.

What a dirty trick on helpless parents.

I never anticipated the persistence that kids could have. I thought it would be easy to distract her, which I am usually good at. But no. She surprised me at every test (many) to see if this was just a whim. It got to a point that I could not explain my reason for saying no in a way she would understand. I think Awesome Guy got it:

"It's just not your kind of toy. You have something against it." He was right.

I'm not sure I ever wrote about my aversion to princesses and pink. I have this fear that it will turn my daughter into a shallow, pretentious, over-indulged pregnantteenagegirl. There, I said it. I judged. I judged every mom who allowed their daughters to indulge in princess fantasies. I am ashamed.

I never anticipated her overwhelming joy.

Here she is in her converted stage-to-nursery area, feeding her little baby

Changing "Baby Twinkle"s diaper

Taking her for a stroll, just like her new adorable baby cousin.
(Thank goodness I didn't give away the pink stroller a neighbour gifted her for her birthday!)

This is why I'm a big sucker after all. Who do you think made this corner of her room?

And laminated that little book you see on the left?
That was a main reason she chose the princess, so I was not about to rip that flimsy thing in a few days' time!

It gets worse, folks.

If I had judgements on princesses, I had worse judgements on moms painting their kid's toenails.
Kids should be kids. Not wear kitten heels or have hot pink toes.

What has become of me? I can ~~over-~~explain.

You see this allows me my me-time. She sits quietly beside me while I get my nails done.

I had also hoped it would stop her toenail biting. It has, but she picks at them instead.

So to all moms I judged silently, I'm sorry. I'm sure you have good reasons, too!

Isn't it also ironic that for a princess-hater, I took her to watch two of them in "Frozen" as her first movie ever? I thought it would be perfect because there was no villain. My little Dove literally runs away from scenes with conflict.

We spent half the time in the lobby outside, and I found myself saying cheesy lines like "you can only be brave when you're scared" and "how will you enjoy everything about life if you're afraid?" but hey, she did it and she's proud!

Among the ironies of the holiday was my own husband who ate his words and repeatedly asked for Ladybug Girl to sleep with us again for a few nights.

This was starting to make me very jealous.

And finally, there's the biggest irony of all: my stint as stay-at-home-mom-with-no-yaya for the holidays is a painful joy. I have found myself in the predicament that my SAHM friends tell me of: being short of patience but full of love.

I have these priceless moments where I laugh in delighted amusement at something my daughter said… and then in the next moment find myself disciplining her because my impatience and expectations. I've found myself saying "no/don't/stop" a lot in this past week even though my head knows that's not the positive parenting choice I made early on.

Add that to a season of excitement and stress, and we tend to go from this: