I Might Need a Nap

Monday evening my eight year old daughter came in and asked me, “Mama, what do princesses eat for breakfast?”

I thought for a minute.  “I guess whatever they want.  They’re princesses.”

She sighed.  “Yes, that’s what Daddy said too.”  She wandered off.  I thought we were finished with that topic.

Not.

A few minutes later she came back to where I was.  “Mama does your laptop belong to Baba?” she asked, using her nickname for her seventeen-year-old sister.

The sarcastic answer of “you would think so, wouldn’t you?” almost popped out.  Instead I said, “No.  Not really.  I let her use it for school.  Why?”

“Because I wanted to look up princess’ breakfast on it, and she wouldn’t let me,” she huffed.  She seemed quite frustrated, I might add.

I told her to come with me to the desktop computer.  I googled “what does a princess eat for breakfast” and prayed nothing inappropriate would pop up.  Since I had not thought this all the way through.  At all.

Not only was there nothing inappropriate, most of the links had to do with poor Princess Kate and how she was handling breakfast and her morning sickness.

I turned around to face my own Princess.  “Yes, baby, like I thought, a princess can have whatever she would like for breakfast.  Okay?”

She nodded.  I waited to see where the conversation would go.  Instead she walked away.  I thought we were done.

Not.

Yesterday evening on the way home from her gymnastics and dance classes, she spoke up from her backseat in the van.

“Mama?”

“Yes ma’am?  What is it?”

“Is the only way to be a princess–is it to be born one?”

I thought for a second.  And then answered, “Yes.” Then I thought about The Princess Diaries movie storyline–not finding out she was a princess until she was a teenager who could drive.  We’ve watched this movie.  *sigh*  I rethought my answer.  “Well usually.”  And then Princess Diana came to mind.  “Or she marries a Prince or a King or something.”  Oh boy.  What did I start there?  I about couldn’t hear the radio for the sound of the wheels turning in her little head.

I’m not sure where all this is coming from, and I for sure have no idea where it’s going, but one thing for sure–knowing this girl, it’s far from over.

I’ll keep you posted on our Princess’ adventure in figuring out how to be a real princess.  (I wonder if she’s praying we aren’t her real parents.)  In the meantime, I figure my days of her willingly preparing her own breakfast and cleaning up after herself may be numbered.