Where did we go wrong?

Mama: "And the Velveteen rabbit went off into the forest to live as a real bunny. The End."

Lucy: "But where is the princess?"

Mama: Pause. Silently wondering "How did this happen?" and "Where is a pencil so I can stick it through my eye?"

I'm trying to take your princess obsession lightly - to quash my feeling that these perfect little damsels in distress are killing your free spirit and a large chunk of my soul.

But really? I read you this amazing, classical tale and you ask "Where is the princess?" Has it really come to this?

These fancy, bejeweled nutjobs are not the role models we want you to be obsessed with. And their mothers - the dead or maniacal women that are forcing them into slave labor or trying to KILL them! What is up with that?! How am I supposed to feel about playing "princess and queen" with you other than "Please God, no!"

But hey - you are 3. And I am told that you will grow out of this phase and onto better things in say, 5 or 6 YEARS. I really wish I found that comforting.

I'm guessing I have to leave the room to scream into a pillow a lot more than Walt Disney did when he was raising his kids.

So I'm saying absolutely no Barbies. My heart just can't take it.