Your daughter is a princess, is she? Well… How nice. Is she “kept” in a tiny room atop a tower waiting for her prince to come rescue her? Or is she delicate and sleeping waiting for true love’s kiss? Maybe she’s a secret princess who’s being hidden from an evil overlord…. Wait, scratch that, it’s no secret that she’s your princess. We hear you exclaim it with glee in that very annoying coochie coo voice to your sweet baby girl… Wait…. She’s 14? Oooooh.

Ok, so it’s just a pet name. I get it. Like sweetie or pumpkin. Or is it? I saw the meme you posted about deserving to be treated like a princess, and “Mommy’s Princess” and “Daddy’s Princess” and my favorite “Nothing is too good for OUR PRINCESS”. Geeze…. That one makes me wanna barf.

Here’s the thing, your daughter is not a princess. (Unless you are legit royalty, then…. Welcome to my blog!) the only thing that makes her even resemble a princess is her bratty entitled behavior. That and the raggedy ass dress that she wears daily to preschool because you don’t want to tell her “no”.

Telling your daughter that she is a princess is setting her up for failure… Her future partner will be human and will make mistakes and can’t be expected to be princes and saviors all the time. The depiction of a princess, in your daughters eyes, likely has to do with the movie Frozen or any number of the “classics” in which the princess is in danger and then gets saved by the valiant prince. Is that what you want for her? Why not flip it? Start calling your daughter by her name, teach her to be strong, teach her to save herself, teach her that her independence is paramount and that she can be soft and feminine and POWERFUL all at the same time. Teach her to be a queen. Yeah, that’s right… Because queens run shit. They don’t need saving. Queens don’t sit around in depressive states, waiting for their prince to show up on his stinky white horse, queens go out and HAPPEN TO LIFE.

So, next time you are about to utter the “P word”, stop and think about the message you’re sending. What does she see in her mind when she hears the word princess? Is that her destiny? Go out and buy her a big crown a cape and a sword, I promise she’ll adapt.