I Didn't Raise Princesses

Hopefully this post won't turn into a rant.  I'm hoping it will be more informative than that.  But I have to confess, this topic--girls being princesses--has been on my mind off and on for quite a while (years, actually), and something I read in passing today has set me off.

So. . .

I don't want to be a queen.  I don't want to be a princess.  I didn't raise my daughters to be princesses, and I sure hope my granddaughters won't be taught to be princesses.

What's so bad about princesses?  Well, from the way I've observed it, there is a trend among modern females, to want to be princesses (or queens).  In other words, they want to be treated like royalty, spared from drudgery (say, housework and any other task they'd rather not do), and pretty much spend their time sitting on their pretty butts when they aren't otherwise engaged in primping, shopping, or socializing.

Princesses (and queens) think the world should revolve around them, and that they should be served (taken care of) by the people in their lives.

No, I don't want to be a princess.  That is so opposite of what I've always wanted to be.  I have striven  to be independent. Self-sufficient.  Humble. Charitable (as in, giving of myself, not as in tossing money [someone else earned] at things rather than spending my own elbow grease and sweat).  Knowledgeable.  Capable.

That's a biggie: Capable.  Capable means I can handle whatever comes my way.  Either through physical effort, mental effort, or in knowing who to call on to assist if something is just out of my realm of abilities.  I don't expect my life to be without struggle and challenge.  It's those things that teach us, that strengthen us, that make us wise and, yes, capable.

That doesn't mean that I have to be coarse, or without tact.  Quite the opposite.  A beautiful woman is not one who has physical attributes that are pleasing to look upon. A beautiful woman has grace, has poise, has deportment.  Who speaks the truth, but does so in a way that does not wound.  A beautiful woman knows that the world does not revolve around her, but yet realizes everything she says and does affects the world (via the people she interacts with).  And so she weighs her words and actions to be beneficial to others was much as possible.

I raised tomboys, not princesses.  But those tomboys have grown to be beautiful women.  Kind, knowledgeable, humble, charitable, independent, self-sufficient, capable women.

In my opinion, American society today needs more females who are raised tomboys, not who are raised to be princesses.  A tomboy is an equal.  A princess has no intention to be equal, she wants to be above.