On Little Girls and The Pain of Shopping at Xmart*

Tomorrow I'm taking Miss Bean (and her sister because N is working) to a doll and tea party at our local rec center. I'm a little nervous because Miss Bean is on the young end and it more or less starts at her nap time and it might be a huge American Girl fest. The Bean is not yet hip to AG, but apparently I want to keep her away from it as long as possible. I guess they're expensive, but honestly they seem a little better than Barbie and Bean is definitely hip to that.

Today I was shopping and I felt like stores like Xmart and the grocery stores would soon become battle grounds with my kids. Everything is princess pink crap this and Dora crap that and SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR. I can imagine having to say no a million times as we walk down the aisles and really who can blame the kids? The crap is pretty and pink and sweet. And I have to battle myself too. Like, Bean loves princesses and I wanted to get her some new summer pj's and they had a set of horrible Disney princess ones and I bought them because I knew how much she would like them. For a while I considered buying her the "boy" ones, which were a much cooler orange with a tractor, but in end I went for the princesses because it was more bang for the buck and I thought it was a cheap way to make her happy.

But am I feeding into this? Should I have bought the tractor set in defense against the princess thing?

Shopping today made me feel worried about having girls and the issues ahead of them. I feel like it's them against these ginormous corporations that want them to buy all the princess stuff and then buy all the sweet stuff and then worry about being too fat and not princessy enough and then drink nothing but Diet Coke and fat-free pretzels when they're 19.

Maybe I'm projecting.

But shit. I'm a 35 year old woman and I still feel like I have to deal with body issues and materialism. And now I have to deal with what stuff I should and shouldn't buy for my girls too.

I don't know. There's no real ending for this post. Cuz it aint no fairy tale.
*Not Walmart.