Friday, July 17, 2009

Playing Princesses



The door opened and in she strolled, head held high and strutting confident as a peacock, she wore a floor length fur trimmed cape in pastel pink and as she descended the ramp toward me I felt a pang of jealousy run through me. This usually quiet and reserved three year old had such an air of grace and poise as she walked into Kindy. She oozed confidence and beauty and nothing could stop her, she's three, she has a floor length cape and she gets compliments from those near by- what more could a girl want.

This scene reminded me of how much I would like to be a little girl again, the fantasy and adventure that each day holds and the ability to transform into someone else without trepidation or fear of ridicule. Childhood goes so quickly and yet we seem to always take it for granted- even as adults caring for children we are so ready to get these individuals to the next level, improve them, extend their knowledge of the world and prepare them for growing up. They are going to grow up, that's inevitable, but perhaps we should concentrate more on helping them enjoy being children before we put all our energy into helping them to lose their childish imaginations and intuition.


If putting on a pink princess cape made me feel as beautiful and carefree as this princess I would never take it off.


Olivia the Pig- created and illustrated by Ian Falconer

No comments:

Post a Comment