Anyone else resisting frozen and other princess stuff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frozen is great. The princesses save each other and everyone else.

No damsels in distress being rescued by a man.

Anna is rescued by a man.

No, Anna teams up with a man and they get a job done together. They work together, rely on each other, and help each other. You know, like partners do in real life?

He saves her at the dam.

I mean, technically yes, in that he pulls her out of the way of a giant's foot. But it lasts about half a second and is literally immediately followed by him saying "I'm here. What do you need?" And he helps her get to the dam so that SHE can save the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frozen is great. The princesses save each other and everyone else.

No damsels in distress being rescued by a man.

Anna is rescued by a man.

No, Anna teams up with a man and they get a job done together. They work together, rely on each other, and help each other. You know, like partners do in real life?

He saves her at the dam.

He helps her to be safe, sure. But he then says, literally, "I'm here; what do you need." As in give me direction--bring me in, help me help you get this done. He doesn't scoop her up and put her on the sidelines so he can get the job done. He helps her get to where she needs to go and helps her to do what she needs to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were you. Just hold your nose and give in. For us, the princess phase lasted 3-5--during that time, every Halloween costume was a princess.

Around 6 she started getting more sporty, and before her 7th bday, she started refusing to wear skirts and dresses in favor of athleisure. Halloween costumes became superheroes, etc. Still sticking to this at 8; she had a sort of goth vampire costume this year.

+1 All this except she was a vampire cat for Halloween. It seems like 4/5 is the most gendered phase of childhood and kids are really the enforcers of gender standards. I didn't like it, but as a parent I just kept sharing the message that it's fine to wear what you want to wear but all kids can wear what they want and play with what they want whether they are a boy or a girl and it's rude to say otherwise. Most kids lighten up by 6 or 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frozen is great. The princesses save each other and everyone else.

No damsels in distress being rescued by a man.

Anna is rescued by a man.

No, Anna teams up with a man and they get a job done together. They work together, rely on each other, and help each other. You know, like partners do in real life?

He saves her at the dam.

I mean, technically yes, in that he pulls her out of the way of a giant's foot. But it lasts about half a second and is literally immediately followed by him saying "I'm here. What do you need?" And he helps her get to the dam so that SHE can save the day.

Right.

As I said.

He saves her at the dam.

That doesn’t not take away from her other feats. Why have you been so loathe to admit it?

[Anonymous]

OP- I was 100% like you, and I held a strict "no princess" line for the first few years. And then, I decided to relax a bit, because I was just imposing my preferences on her, and I could let her decide how princess-y she wanted to be without giving up on teaching her appropriate values. So, I watched with her, and I would talk about what I did or didn't like about a particular princess when we were talking about princesses "I don't like how they made it so that she just sits around and plays with birds all day - princesses should be leaders and take care of their people!" "I really like how Cinderella makes her own dress! She's so good at that. But for pete's sake, girl - if you want to leave the house, go get a job!" I didn't say that all the time -- I let DD take the lead on conversations, but she knew where I stood. And if she said "I like Aurora because she's pretty and she gets her prince" I'd say "That's wonderful!"

It's a fine line, but just keep in mind two things: 1) supporting her as she figures out princesses will do a lot more to make her strong than banning them and 2) you're her parent. It may not seem that way in the day-to-day, but Disney has nothing on you in the long term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frozen is great. The princesses save each other and everyone else.

No damsels in distress being rescued by a man.

Anna is rescued by a man.

No, Anna teams up with a man and they get a job done together. They work together, rely on each other, and help each other. You know, like partners do in real life?

He saves her at the dam.

I mean, technically yes, in that he pulls her out of the way of a giant's foot. But it lasts about half a second and is literally immediately followed by him saying "I'm here. What do you need?" And he helps her get to the dam so that SHE can save the day.

Right.

As I said.

He saves her at the dam.

That doesn’t not take away from her other feats. Why have you been so loathe to admit it?

Sorry, should have indicated - I'm a NP, not the one you've been talking to. Yes, he saves her at the dam. They save each other at various points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, you do you. But the Frozen princesses are kinda badass and the movies are honestly pretty good as far as kids movies go (wayyy better than Dora, for example) so refusing all of it feels a little like it's just to prove a point.

+1 Before my daughter grew up and developed a personality, I was self-righteous about the princess culture stuff, but I actually do think Frozen is a movie and appreciate the strong female characters and sister love themes. Dora is “educational” but it’s pretty annoying TV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, I have a SIL like you. Stifling her daughter's genuine curiosity and creativity and interests because she doesn't want her to be "girly" or "like other girls."

She imposes her own will and viewpoints on a little kid who just wants to explore and have fun and yes, be like other girls in some ways.

When my daughters want to explore something I'm not sure about, I make sure that I get in there and help with their initial exploration. So that I can answer questions, and help guide by asking some questions and making some alternate points.

But geez, don't dismiss something outright just because it is not of interest to YOU. Don't impose your will and view. Let her develop into her own person, with you as a resource and a guide.

+1 This. You can’t curate your child’s personality by blocking genres of TV. Land the helicopter OP.

[Anonymous]

We don’t do the princess stuff either. I don’t care for it and she hasn’t asked. If she asked though, I would let her watch it and buy the dresses or whatever. I don’t think it’s something to get worked up about one way or the other. She’ll navigate the playground. My son knows an impressive amount about paw patrol, despite never seeing it. Hasn’t been an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, I have a SIL like you. Stifling her daughter's genuine curiosity and creativity and interests because she doesn't want her to be "girly" or "like other girls."

She imposes her own will and viewpoints on a little kid who just wants to explore and have fun and yes, be like other girls in some ways.

When my daughters want to explore something I'm not sure about, I make sure that I get in there and help with their initial exploration. So that I can answer questions, and help guide by asking some questions and making some alternate points.

But geez, don't dismiss something outright just because it is not of interest to YOU. Don't impose your will and view. Let her develop into her own person, with you as a resource and a guide.

I read the OP several times and nowhere does she say that she doesn't want her child to be "girly" or "like other girls." She just says she doesn't like the princess stuff.

[Anonymous]

The princess phase is extremely brief. At my dd’s preschool it was over by the kindergarten year.

If I had another kid interested in princess stuff, I would let her indulge it ferociously. It’s a flash in the pan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frozen is great. The princesses save each other and everyone else.

No damsels in distress being rescued by a man.

Anna is rescued by a man.

No, Anna teams up with a man and they get a job done together. They work together, rely on each other, and help each other. You know, like partners do in real life?

He saves her at the dam.

I mean, technically yes, in that he pulls her out of the way of a giant's foot. But it lasts about half a second and is literally immediately followed by him saying "I'm here. What do you need?" And he helps her get to the dam so that SHE can save the day.

Right.

As I said.

He saves her at the dam.

That doesn’t not take away from her other feats. Why have you been so loathe to admit it?

You said she was a "damsel in distress." You want to parse and mince words? We'll start there.

[Anonymous]

“Where the North wind, meets the sea. There’s a river....”

Oh no. We are full embracing ALL of it.

[Anonymous]

I love Frozen. I have two sisters and I really love how the sisters look out for and support each other.

[Anonymous]

No. She likes it. It's a fun activity for her and it's honestly not that annoying. It's not like she walks around demanding to be called Elsa all day but she does like to play dress up and listen to Frozen and asks a lot of questions about the characters, etc. DD is almost 4 and I will let her live out this phase as long as she likes.