“Did you see this picture I’m working on? I’m an artist!”
“Yes, you’re a very good artist!”
“Well, I’m an artist now – while I’m a kid. But I’m going to be a Princess Ballerina when I grow up.”
“Well, you can do the ballerina part, but probably not the Princess part.”
I immediately regretted my words.
I should be better about allowing her to believe in fairytales and impossible dreams! I’m raising her to be way too much of a realist, and at five years old! I’m a horrible mother.
“Why can’t I be a Princess?”
I’ve got to go with it now…
“You have to marry a prince to become a princess.”
“Well, I’m going to marry Ethan. I already know that.”
“Exactly. And he’s not a prince.”
“But he could become one…”
“Nope. He’s not a Prince because Miss Nikki and Mister Blake aren’t a King and Queen. You can’t just become a prince – your parents have to be a King and Queen.”
“But girls can become princesses!”
“You mean like Princess Kate that married Prince William – do you remember watching her wedding?”
“Yes – like her.”
“A girl can become a Princess by marrying a Prince. But a Prince has to be a Prince first. And, unfortunately for you, there are no Princes in the United States. So you’re going to have to move to another country if you want to marry a Prince.”
“Okay then. So what countries have princes?”
“Well, there’s England… and The United Arab Emirates… and I’m sure there are a lot of others.”
“Tell me ALL of the countries with Princes, please.”
I pulled up Wikipedia… Ah! List of countries by system of Government.
“Okay. There’s Andorra…Antigua and Barbuda…Australia… – NOAH! Take that out of your mouth! – The Bahamas… Bahrain… are you getting all of these?”
“Yup.”
The list continues for some time while Noah repeatedly tries to use my distracted state to create mischief…
“Lesotho…Liechtenstein…Luxembourg…Malaysia…Monaco – NOAH! GET OFF THE COFFEE TABLE!! DOWN, BOY!! – …Morocco… – have you decided where you’re going to go yet?”
“No – I think I’ll wait until I grow up to decide.”
“Qatar…Saint Kitts and Nevis…Saint Lucia…Saint Vincent and the Granadines…Saudi Arabia… – but I don’t want you to go to Saudi Arabia, though – okay?”
“Why not?”
“Some men aren’t very nice to women in Saudi Arabia.”
“Okay – I won’t go there.”
(I mean…I personally am dying to visit Saudi Arabia, due to my complete obsession with the secrecy of it all. However, I don’t think that I want my tiny daughter headed over there to score herself a Prince.)
“Tonga…Tuvalu…United Arab Emirates…United Kingdom…Vatican City… And that’s all of them!”
“Great. Now can you write all of those down for me?”
“Um, no. But I’ll read them to you and let YOU write them down.”
“No thanks. Just keep that list for me.”
“Okay. Let me know where you think you’ll head off to.”
“Okay – I’ll be thinking about it.”
And I sighed with relief.
Clearly, I did not destroy her dreams – she, like her father, just likes to have all of the facts clearly laid out so that she can plan ahead properly.
So now the only question is, when she’s a Princess, what does that make me? The Queen-In-Law? The StepQueen? The Princess Mum?
I’m off to work on my crown.
Wait, how can there ever be a princess of The Vatican?!?!
But tell her I encourage her to go for Monaco or England. As long as I get to plan her Royal Wedding! :)
Although Luxembourg would be nice too!
I’m kinda skeptical of the term “Constitutional Monarchy” – maybe it’s referring to the Pope as the ruler? I also questioned Australia, so I looked it up – who knew? Queen Elizabeth the II is the reigning monarch of Australia and 15 other countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_realm) – Clearly I’m behind on my world politics knowledge.
Wait….Miss Nikki and Mister Blake are NOT a king and queen????
For real, right? That was quite the shocker!!
Hey, I have GREAT NEWS for Ali!!! She is… wait for it…. already a princess! Seriously. Because her Father is a King!
Psalm 47:7 – For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.
So since Ali is a daughter of The King, that makes her a princess! My daughter loves this. All the more reason to wear pink and sparkles and fluffy dresses – because a princess has to look the part, right? :)
I’ve used that explanation with her a lot, and she is happy for a minute, but then wants to go back to “being a princess in THIS world”.
We’ll keep working on it!
Ahahaha, well it was worth a shot. :) My girl is only 2, and far less analytical than yours, so she buys it hook, line, and sinker. I’m sure when she is older it will click that a daughter of the King and an earthly princess are two very different things… I hope she’s not mad at me for “tricking” her for so long! :) :) :)
How adorable! I don’t know that having a daughter who is the princess of The Bahamas would be a bad deal… at least there would probably be free lodging for you commoners whenever you decided to visit! :)
You’re right. I should play my cards right and choose a country in which I want to “holiday”.
I love the interjections for Noah… I feel like my entire life is interjections at this point… Landen trying to climb on/throw/pick up/eat/pull baby brother across the floor/sit on the cat/open the oven/and SO MUCH MORE all during the course of a 5 minute phone conversation!
And as for your position as the princess’ mother… being part of a fairytale world and all… you could be the fairy princess mother! I mean, all the fairies and fairy-somethings are the best people with all the great powers!
A Fairy Princess Mother!! This fantasy is getting better and better!
You are ruining everything!!! Go back and tell her that you were totally wrong and that Ethan is in fact a prince. Geesh, girl! What were you thinking?
It’s too late. He’s lost his chance by not being a Prince. He should really work on that.
Haha, I love how she was satisfied with the list of countries. Too cute!
I kinda feel like I should be taking notes on these matters. You know, just in case marrying a prince seems like a good idea at some point :-p
hmmm…..I think you could be the Queen Mother in law? Maybe..
Come to think of it, I would love to marry a prince….if only Ireland or Italy were a monarchy.. *sigh*
I didn’t tell Ali this, but there IS actually a prince in the US – we saw Prince Lorenzo Borghese on “Selling New York”. Way back in the days when the Pope was as powerful as a King, a Pope had given his family the title of Prince, even though they weren’t actually ruling over any territory. The current Prince of this family is fabulously wealthy and is a bachelor living in NYC. Handsome, too. I recommend you look him up.
(I believe he was also on The Bachelor, though – which automatically makes him disgusting and unappealing.)
hmmm…..I thought my dd had already claimed Luxembourg…..at least for years that is the country she dreamed of visiting. She didn’t mention the need of a prince, though…..although, marrying into royalty does have its privileges,not that I would know – LOL! But a girl can dream:)!
I’m totally going to use Valerie’s line.
But pretty funny to get a whole list of countries. Fun fact: I actually attended school with a member of the Belgian royal family (pretty distant I think, but we referred to him as prince). He was kind of a jerk though.
That reminds me of Wicked. But in the end, the Jerky Prince turned out to be a really nice guy!! You should have given him a chance.
laughing out loud at your interjected yelling at your son. so funny and so real life. my life! and i’m impressed that you went ahead and pulled up the list of prince-able countries for her. i’m lazy!
My kid doesn’t give up. And she knows when you’re bluffing. I have no choice but to do things right.
Love how a dream to be a princess lead to a search on Wikipedia…you don’t homeschool by chance, do ya? ;)