Any way to delay or avoid the Disney princess obsession?

[Anonymous]

It really bothers me that you’re asking this. Liking girly things or princesses doesn’t make you less than. It’s a bad message to send to girls that they can’t like girly things but encourage stereotypical boy things. It’s a form of self hatred that women do things like this.

I have a very unisex playroom. I had dolls for my son to play with, play kitchen (so many boys don’t get that) and even books with girl characters. We didn’t encourage the Disney princesses for our daughters but when my daughter saw Frozen for the first time it was all over. They’re all unique people with their own interests and you have to let them decide what they want. My sons favorite color has always been purple, even as a baby.

[Anonymous]

Meh. Mine is nearly 5. Hasn't seen a single disney film, doesn't know about Elsa or most other disney princesses. Knows about princesses in general since we read a version of Brave and some other stories that had princesses in them. They were very cool too, just not disney based. She likes trains and dinosaurs and volcanoes and pandas and butterflies and playing doctor and zookeper etc and that brings her joy. If her friends introduce her to Disney in K sure, we will indulge her to a point. I'm only anti focusing on any one thing to the complete exclusion of others. Im aiming to introduce as many other things before we are inevitably under a Disney siege. Ive seen my friends with little girls who want to play nothing else except elsa and anna for a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really bothers me that you’re asking this. Liking girly things or princesses doesn’t make you less than. It’s a bad message to send to girls that they can’t like girly things but encourage stereotypical boy things. It’s a form of self hatred that women do things like this.

I have a very unisex playroom. I had dolls for my son to play with, play kitchen (so many boys don’t get that) and even books with girl characters. We didn’t encourage the Disney princesses for our daughters but when my daughter saw Frozen for the first time it was all over. They’re all unique people with their own interests and you have to let them decide what they want. My sons favorite color has always been purple, even as a baby.

Agreed! My 4 year old is allowed to play with anything, as long as it doesn’t promote violence. She has dolls, Paw Patrol stuff, Peppa Pig, lots of Disney stuff. She isn’t really into the princesses, but that’s just by chance. We didn’t actively discourage any of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meh. Mine is nearly 5. Hasn't seen a single disney film, doesn't know about Elsa or most other disney princesses. Knows about princesses in general since we read a version of Brave and some other stories that had princesses in them. They were very cool too, just not disney based. She likes trains and dinosaurs and volcanoes and pandas and butterflies and playing doctor and zookeper etc and that brings her joy. If her friends introduce her to Disney in K sure, we will indulge her to a point. I'm only anti focusing on any one thing to the complete exclusion of others. Im aiming to introduce as many other things before we are inevitably under a Disney siege. Ive seen my friends with little girls who want to play nothing else except elsa and anna for a year.

You realize that starting with Belle, the Disney princesses have been really strong? Maybe familiarize yourself with the stories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get over yourself and your wokeness. It might bring joy to your child. What’s wrong with that?

Mic drop. End thread.

Disagree. Her daughter is 2. Not 5. I didn’t let my kids watch cartoons that weren’t educational either at 2. Time for that later!

[Anonymous]

I agree with you DH -- it's not a big deal. the whole anti-princess thing is ridiculous. If you have the kind of kid that's into princesses, fine. If you have the kind of kids that's not, also fine. Not a big deal either way. Let your kid be herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get over yourself and your wokeness. It might bring joy to your child. What’s wrong with that?

Mic drop. End thread.

Disagree. Her daughter is 2. Not 5. I didn’t let my kids watch cartoons that weren’t educational either at 2. Time for that later!

I believe in picking and choosing my battles. I’m not sure this is a battle I would pick with my husband - I want to give my husband autonomy to make decisions with the kids - not have me be the manager of his relationship with them.

[Anonymous]

I get where you are coming from, OP, and agree it is a bit different since your kid is under 3. No need to let her watch lots of movies if you aren’t into that. The middle ground we found was being deliberate about the Princess movies my 4 year old can watch. We avoid the old Disney movies where the girl exists to get the boy. She loves Frozen. We introduced her to other stories like the Wizard of Oz. We won’t buy character toys because we don’t want toys with a single use. She can make her other dolls into frozen characters and into wizards or a family. Some PP said the bigger deal is what you say to her about them. “Isn’t Ariel so pretty” is going to be damaging long term if you aren’t also saying “I love how curious she is!” It’s a tough balance but ultimately your kid is going to like what they like.

[Anonymous]

OP, all of their obsessions are annoying. I have boys so we skipped princesses, but we had trucks, dinosaurs, Pokémon, Hulk, and Buzz effing Lightyear. Let your daughter wear a pink sparkly dress nonstop for a while. And when my kid was so thrilled to meet Buzz at Disney, we also saw kids whose lives were made by meeting a Disney Princess in the next receiving line over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meh. Mine is nearly 5. Hasn't seen a single disney film, doesn't know about Elsa or most other disney princesses. Knows about princesses in general since we read a version of Brave and some other stories that had princesses in them. They were very cool too, just not disney based. She likes trains and dinosaurs and volcanoes and pandas and butterflies and playing doctor and zookeper etc and that brings her joy. If her friends introduce her to Disney in K sure, we will indulge her to a point. I'm only anti focusing on any one thing to the complete exclusion of others. Im aiming to introduce as many other things before we are inevitably under a Disney siege. Ive seen my friends with little girls who want to play nothing else except elsa and anna for a year.

I fail to see a problem with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get where you are coming from, OP, and agree it is a bit different since your kid is under 3. No need to let her watch lots of movies if you aren’t into that. The middle ground we found was being deliberate about the Princess movies my 4 year old can watch. We avoid the old Disney movies where the girl exists to get the boy. She loves Frozen. We introduced her to other stories like the Wizard of Oz. We won’t buy character toys because we don’t want toys with a single use. She can make her other dolls into frozen characters and into wizards or a family. Some PP said the bigger deal is what you say to her about them. “Isn’t Ariel so pretty” is going to be damaging long term if you aren’t also saying “I love how curious she is!” It’s a tough balance but ultimately your kid is going to like what they like.

A woman should have the freedom to do that if she wishes. There are plenty of women out there like this. That does not make them bad, or wrong, or less than. Women have choices. And this is one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get where you are coming from, OP, and agree it is a bit different since your kid is under 3. No need to let her watch lots of movies if you aren’t into that. The middle ground we found was being deliberate about the Princess movies my 4 year old can watch. We avoid the old Disney movies where the girl exists to get the boy. She loves Frozen. We introduced her to other stories like the Wizard of Oz. We won’t buy character toys because we don’t want toys with a single use. She can make her other dolls into frozen characters and into wizards or a family. Some PP said the bigger deal is what you say to her about them. “Isn’t Ariel so pretty” is going to be damaging long term if you aren’t also saying “I love how curious she is!” It’s a tough balance but ultimately your kid is going to like what they like.

A woman should have the freedom to do that if she wishes. There are plenty of women out there like this. That does not make them bad, or wrong, or less than. Women have choices. And this is one of them.

PP here. Yes, I agree that a WOMAN can make that choice. My kids will have plenty of time to go boy or girl crazy and make choices about relationships. They don’t need to do that when they are 4.

[Anonymous]

I get where OP is coming from. I think her point is she wants her young daughter, who is only two, not even 2 1/2 years old yet, to watch educational shows. She mentioned PBS Kids so she’s probably watching things like Sesame Street where she’s learning colors, shapes, the alphabet. The Disney movies have a lot of good morals and lessons to learn, but for a child that is older. Is a 2 year old going to learn how to count 1-10 or animal noises or how to use the potty from Mulan or Aladdin? No.

There is a time and place for Disney and it is unavoidable for most and I think the OP knows that. But I would agree that I would not want my child, whether a daughter or a son, to watch TV and movies that are not educational when they are tiny toddlers. I don’t think my kids even saw Disney movie until they were maybe 3 1/2 or four? I limited how much screen time they had, and this was back in the late to thousands when people were much more liberal about Screen Time.

[Anonymous]

I'm fine with the movies, but I'm not buying them an endless supply of the toys or taking them to Disney.

[Anonymous]

I agree the disney shows are crap, although I like the movies (recent ones) a lot for ages 4 and up. We’ve been to disney 7 times so it’s not like we are anti-disney but their toys are usually cheap crap.
My girls were never really into it despite our watching the movies and going to the parks. I found it came in little phases—one daughter wanted princess themed parties because that’s what all the other giirls in preschool had, so we did it. One girl wanted the barbie style disney princesses for Christmas one year, and we bought that. I think she saw them at a cousin’s house. The girls I know that we’re seriously princess obsessed, it was largely fed by the parents who wanted their girls to be little princesses. Don’t do that and she will be fine. (Also fwiw the girl I know who was most princess obsessed is now a computer scientist who has no interest in clothes, hair, makeup, etc.....so I don’t think there’s a great correlation between what they are into a 3 and what they are into at 17 or 23.)