Every Little Girl Dreams of Being a Princess... Reflections of Playtime in Preschool

Every little girl dreams of being a princess. Whether it is because they want that night in shinning armor, to ride horseback to their castle, to have someone to do all the work for them, so they can be in charge, or just to “be beautiful”, it’s the dream of them all, right? What if there are girls who don’t know what being a princess means? There are ones who cannot even imagine what that is like because they have so few things. There are girls who have never seen a movie with a princess in it or read a book about a princess. There are little girls who do not have these dreams because their dreams are too filled with good food and just one beautiful dress to wear to church.

Today in preschool, for various reasons, we only had the girls in class.  One of the girls is a missionary family’s daughter and when I told her mom what the class would be made up of she suggested bringing dress up to class. I (of course) loved that idea and had already been planning to bring out the babies (I mean we have been talking about Baby Jesus, right?).

Watching the girls play I was filled with so many emotions. These girls get to have so much fun. They finally get to feel like a princess with plastic heeled shoes, beautiful dresses, bel scarves, wands, and tiaras. They get to be “normal” for once.

But then I stopped myself. Normal? What does that mean? Is it normal to have dress up clothes or is it normal to not even have one nice dress? Here, I’d say the latter is true, but is that normal right? Is it okay? I don’t think there is a problem with having enough clothes to change your wardrobe each day (I have this) or having clothes specifically for dress up. I think that’s great—I still enjoy dress up and I’m 23 (just ask any kid I have spent a lot of time with). But that doesn’t make me stop wrestling with the question of what is normal?

I kept jumping between smiling for joy because this might be the first time these two girls had a chance to dress up and pretend to be someone they weren’t. It was great to aid them in naming their babies and talk about the ball they were going to. I knew going to a ball was too far beyond their comprehension. I asked them what kind of food they were hoping to have at the party. “Cake” was all they could think of. That is what they equate parties to because we have cake for birthday parties. Oh what a world they will have when they get to go to the states.

Is their imagination and creativity hindered because they do not have the things I may have had growing up? Not at all. That is why we see them making their own toys—cars made from juice bottles with wheels from the caps and kites from plastic bags. They still have that creativity, but it is on a whole different level. Their creativity isn’t aided by movies and stories, it is genuine. They want a toy so they make it. It does not need costumes and books—they play outside with their friends all day.

Which life is normal? Which life is good? By what standards? I don’t know, I’m still trying to figure that out. We want what is best for our kids, we want them to have toys, we want them to have art supplies, we want them to have movies, games, and books, we want them to have clothes, we encourage creativity and play. But how much is too much? I’m not at all saying you shouldn’t give your kids anything, but let their creativity run wild. Don’t let them have too much “stuff” that they don’t have to use creativity.

I loved watching the smiles appear on the girls’ face as they were just three and four year old girls. Pure joy as they dressed beautifully and as they cared for babies, dressing and undressing them. Pure joy as they realized how cool of a clacking noise their shoes they could barely walk in made. Pure joy as they fed their babies and dressed them up nice to go out.

These three girls where nothing more than three friends having fun and dressing up and they did not want to clean up when it was time. You could easily find this happening at any play date in the states, but here your chances of finding this are slim—very slim. It was an honor to watch this play before my eyes, but it was also a slap in the face when I realized that so many other girls outside our gate will never know what that is like.

So, this story, realization, or whatever you want to call it really doesn’t have an ending or a great conclusion. Its just a summation of my thought process during playtime at preschool today. I guess I’ll leave you with this. Stop and think before you go out and buy your child every new toy they want. Realize that some children won’t ever know what a new toy is. Children don’t need everything—they need love. They need fostered creativity and free play. Just remember as you go to sleep tonight that every child has the capability of dreaming of being a prince or a princess—some of them just dream of a good meal or a comfortable place to sleep.