Pink!
My daughter is irresistibly attracted to the colour pink. She loves everything princess-like, and can’t get enough of her little pink handbag, hairclips and necklaces. She’s SUCH a girl!
This morning when she woke up, she climbed into our bed and whispered in my ear that when she’s big, she will have long hair like me, earrings, and lots of necklaces. She has also told me before that when she’s grown up she will marry Easton (Courtney’s son), and he’ll buy her a big ring. So you know Court, we’ll soon be family. And Easton better start saving!
Cute, yes, but where she got all of this girliness is a miracle to me. I mean, yes, she’s a girl – duh – but I, as her mother, have never been much into the whole pink and princess thing. I definitely prefer a cute white dress over the bright pink varieties with embroidered butterflies. I bought her a train track for her second birthday, if you get the gist!
Of course I don’t want to be a mean mama and deprive her of what she is so fond of, so for her 3rd birthday we didn’t get her a bike (very strange in the Netherlands), but a candy coloured princess dress. Our friends in Brussels sent her a pink little handbag to match, and voila. She’s happy, and I am too, as long as her dressing up efforts are kept indoors.
Now, to show you the differences in styles between my daughter and me, here are two pictures…
The first one is my daughter who completely dressed herself. Seriously. Look how pleased she is with her look, she’s really striking a pose! The crown she made in the Tropenmuseum and she’s immensely proud of it. The sunglasses were a gift and she keeps pulling them out of the drawer (where I keep putting them back into). The little bag holds her hair-clips, a selection of wooden necklaces, pens, notes, etc.
The second picture shows how I love to see my daughter. A plain dress (H&M), simple Bensimon shoes… Basta.
Now, I am of course quite amused by my daughter’s fashion sense, and I remember that as a child dressing up in my mum’s clothes was great fun. But when I see little girls here in Amsterdam walking around on high-heeled flamengo shoes, I think to myself: Never EVER!
Mean mum or not.
xxx Esther
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this is so funny, I have exactly the same scenario with my four year old Sofia. The beautiful pink princess!! Try as I might to get her to wear different colours, she has had pink everything and is quite determined about it. !! I too dislike pink, and wonder how I produced such a girlie girl !!
My other daughter was a complete tom boy, hated pink and still does, so in a way I was glad to get a girlie girl really, and to be fair we are getting over the pink phase a little now. I bought her a beautiful black summer dress fro our hols in Italy, and she wore it!! We had pink hair slides !!
My other daughter is only 9months, what next I wonder!!
and I have a son who is obsessed with black patent leather mary-jane shoes! worrying.
I’m similarly in the same boat….never encouraged pink let alone dresses and now my 3yo will only wear dresses and just left the house in her mermaid fancy dress (granted she was going to a friend’s pirate party!). I think girls are just hard-wired for bags, pink, etc, living out the princess fantasy. They will, in all likelihood, grow out of it, especially as they see their mothers wearing jeans and not pink! (at least I hope so!)
You know, and the thing is, as I think about back to school and getting some new fall clothes, I find myself in a bit of a pickle because whereas I would never naturally pick PINK, I know in order to get my daughter to wear certain things, they have to be pink. Yuck! So whereas I would prefer brown or navy or maybe even aubergine, she would prefer pink. I hear it’s a phase they do grow out of-fingers crossed!
I’m already banking on Easton and Sara getting married!!! At least then I would get along with the in-laws!!
And it would reintroduce the Dutch back into our family!!
Any idea where I can buy Bensimons in Amsterdam, or do I have to wait until the next time I’m in Paris?
I am so hoping that we are not going to have the pink obsession, though I think I was a bit pink obsessed myself as a wee one. My mother never forgot about buying me a whole session worth of pink clothes and the realizing that I had changed my mind and hated pink!
Christine, I have seen Bensimon somewhere, but I can’t remember now… When I remember I’ll let you know!!
On this one I would refer to my mum, my wise mum I should say. My 4 year old daughter is into pink big time, she is also into princess dresses and ballet clothes, etc. A very normal little girl apparently. In a way she is funny and cute when she wears her pinky dresses (although I insist this is kept inside the house, boring mum that I am) but above everything else SHE IS HAPPY AND HAS SO MUCH FUN! It really stroke me when I looked at the pictures of Esther’s daughter above, they could totally have been pictures of my daughter, exactly the same difference in style. To come back to my mum, she is the one who pointed out how happy and pround were the little girls when wearing their princess outfits. And she also said that she was sometimes mad at my sister and I for our pink dressing up (although she must be confused, I would never have done that!) but then came the jeans + T-shirt era and there was nothing that could be done against that, no skirt, no dress would ever be allowed in our cupboards…. for a few long years. So there is always something to complain about!
It’s true, it does make them happy… But I can not imagine I’ve ever been like that myself, as you say!
(BTW, I will never change my mind on the heels I’m afraid!)
I am with you , no heels and no pink plastic mules. I swear!
I was NEVER allowed to wear pink (being a redhead) so I have made the point of letting my girl wear as much pink as she wants although I will limit the amount in her wardrobe I think!
My now 8-year old daughter sounds just like Sara! When she was 6 1/2 to 7, however, things started to change. Now she is into black converse shoes and pants, pants, pants! While her girliness may seem excessive now, try to enjoy it! There WILL be a time when you wish she would put on a dress!
So little girls are everywhere the same! I am not surprised, since most cloths for girls theses days – specially for babies and toddlers- are pink or purple. My daughter (4 ½) is into purple as well.
Most products for little girls involve Disney’s Princesses, long dresses and fairy tales. It is simply called “brainwash”. My daughter when she grows up wants to marry a prince and be a Mummy!!! My husband gets a bit upset with all these girly things but I just laugh. Let them be little girls, they grown up so fast how longs is this going last?
[...] is seriously wonderful. I even allow her to wear it on the street (which can’t be said for other combinations she has recently [...]