Is dog or princess better? (07/21/2008)

My granddaughter is no longer a dog. Maybe. Her imagination has kicked in big time and she alternates between being a dog and being a princess.

I think the appeal of imitating her favorite black Labrador retriever is that it allows her to lick people and get away with it. I assume she transforms into other animals but currently a dog is what she is most often.

The princess part is easier to understand. She has always loved necklaces and anything else she can drape around her neck. All little kids go through a stage where they enjoy stumbling around in their mother's high heels. No matter how small Mom's feet are, her footwear looks like clown shoes on their tiny feet.

It is part of the process of determining who they are and who they want to be.

Many girls go through at least one princess phase. If the truth were told, most of us never quite outgrow it. We would love to have our own prince. We imagine this prince is able to solve all our problems, eliminate the ogre, the wicked witch, the evil stepmother or whatever, and that we can ride away with him and live happily ever after.

We are attracted to shiny things like expensive jewelry. We like fancy clothes. Princes always ride beautiful horses. Maybe that is why lots of girls also go through a horse lover phase. It is leftover from the Prince Charming fantasy.

Plus princesses get to live in big castles. They have power and parties and life is wonderful.

The only problem is that there is more to life than castles and jewelry. Fancy balls would get tiresome after awhile.

Even princesses grow up eventually. They may not be content to sit at home in a drafty castle while their prince gallivants all across the country slaying dragons and, oh, my - flirting with other princesses! Yikes! That wasn't in the fairy tale.

While the prince is gone the princess might develop a love for fast cars, but whoever heard of a princess racing? Remember, most princess stories were written long before Danica Patrick came along.

Or maybe the princess wants to open a little boutique, or find a cure for some dread disease, or go skydiving or any number of un-princess like things but there she is, stuck in the castle, waiting for her prince to come home. Again.

Then when he finally does come home he isn't quite as dashing as she remembered. He is tired and cranky. He just wants to sit down and rest, not attend yet another fancy dance.

He doesn't want to talk about the dragon he slew because he is beginning to believe that dragons are essentially harmless. He is secretly afraid that someday dragons will be extinct. He won't admit it but he admires their ability to breathe fire without burning their own lips off.

He is tired of never knowing where his next meal is coming from and is looking forward to his wife's meatloaf. Except that she won't make meatloaf because that is the cook's job and the cook makes terrible meatloaf.

He is lost in his own thoughts and the princess needs someone new to talk to. She wonders what happened to that dashing young man she rode away with.

She tries to talk to him about her life at the castle and asks if she can go along on his next adventure but in the middle of her sentence she notices that her prince has fallen asleep.

The princess sighs. Maybe being a princess wasn't such a great idea after all. She wonders if she is too old to go back to being a dog?

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