The Dress

I saw a pin the other day with a little girl, probably Kalynn's age, sitting in her mother's wedding dress and the picture said "photograph your little girl in your wedding dress to display at her wedding."

I thought "Wow! What a cute idea! I have to do this!"

And then I read the comments. All 138 of them.

I have heard both sides to this argument. It seems as if half the ladies were gushing and raving about what a brilliant idea this was. The other half saying it wasn't right to already be planning your daughter's life and that if she never got married she would know you were disappointed in her and that it was wrong to focus your daughter on the idea that landing a man and standing in a pretty dress with him at the alter was the peak of life for a woman.

I mean, come on! Really?

I want my daughter to be happy. Regardless of how she feels about marriage how ever many years down the line. I would never in a million years raise my daughter to be anything other than happy with herself in her own skin. If she chooses to marry a man, as long as he makes her happy, she will have my unconditional blessing. If she chooses another road, she'll have it then too. But for right now, she's a 2 year old. A very girly one at that. And she is by her own choosing. One who loves dressing up and wearing my makeup and having her hair done, and dancing in front of the mirror, and having her nails painted and wearing many many many bracelets.

So I broke out my wedding dress and my veil and I sat back and watched her reaction which was to immediately widen her eyes and say "pretty!" about 100 times while she rapidly undressed so she could try it on. And then she wanted the "Minnie bow" which is what she calls anything that goes in her hair like clips, bobby pins, barrettes, veils etc.

I mean, come on! Who am I to tell her she can't try on a dress that makes her feel pretty? If it were up to her, she'd wear frilly dresses everyday of the week and even to bed. It doesn't mean I'm going to frame it and display it at her wedding reception or force her into a race to find a man and settle down. It just means that on a Friday afternoon, she played dress up and I took some pictures because she looked cute. I would have taken and posted the same amount of photos and thought she was just as oh-so-adorable if she were to have dressed up as a firefighter or a nurse or a polar bear. So there.

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