Yes Princess, you can be a Knight
I am always amazed by my kids. I am amazed at how fast they are growing, how much they seem to learn every single day, and how wide-open their minds are. They know about traditional social roles, but they also know that people have the decision to do what they want, how they want. I don’t know that it is something we are teaching them, even though we aren’t the most traditional parents in the world, but it is certainly something they have picked up on and we aren’t trying to combat. In fact, I want to foster it.
The other day, my oldest boy and my daughter were fighting. We were at Medieval Times in Lawrenceville, waiting to be brought into the main room for the dinner and show. The boys had just bought a pair of wooden swords with their Valentine’s Day money from the grandparents, and my daughter decided she wanted to battle her big brother. She took the sword from the Monster and went after the other one.
“She’s a bruiser, eh Mi’ Lord?” one of the cast members asked as he walked by, laughing at how the diminutive princess (dressed in her Disney best) was having at her older sibling. When these things start, inevitably, he is the one who gets the raw end and ends up quitting because he was ‘just playing,’ and she doesn’t play.
After a few moments of sulking, she gave him the ‘you’re a big baby’ look and sat down next to him on the bench. “I want to be a Princess Knight,” she told him, proudly waving the sword around. “You can’t be a Knight, only boys can be Knights. You have to be a Princess and be saved by Knights. I want to be a Knight.”
“Yes I can, too! I can beat you in sword-fighting, and Daddy told me that there are war princesses who fight bad guys like Knights do.”
These arguments usually end up with either her hitting her brother, or her going to me and complaining about him. This time something else caught their attention, and they dropped it. Good thing, too; she’s developed a wicked right hook.
Filed under: Family, The Monkeys
Rhyne,
Stumbled across your blog and couldn’t believe I found someone from high school. Anyway, your kids are cute! Looks like you have your hands full. I know with my 2 girls I seem to running constantly between activities and family functions.
I am in VA now living outside Richmond with my husband, girls and the many pets they bring home! Haven’t made it to SC in a while (except for the beach for vacation last year).
Glad to see you are doing well with a great looking family.
Rebecca Padgett
(Becky Robinson)
Robert - It was wonderful relating about links, etc with you today via Twitter. And that’s one gorgeous pic of a true, anointed Princess Knight(!) Thanks for sharing about your family & social networking in general. Till the next conversation … Jill.
Oh, awesome! :-):-D I always wanted to be a Princess Knight, too! Growing up, that meant pretending to be Princess Leia–now it means writing novels about Princess Knights and painting Twitter page pictures that have them.
And having three brothers myself, I can understand your Princess’s aggressiveness…but you can tell her I said maybe we need to take it easy on the boys every so often.
We watch a show called Jane and the Dragon which is about a girl training to be a knight!
I found you via Twitter / Jared.
When your daughter is older she may enjoy Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown. There’s a great knight/princess character. It was the book that finally flipped the switch on my step-daughter’s love of reading.
Your little girl reminds me of my Cassie, and her spunk for being a “tough princess”. No brothers to beat up, so it was usually me.