The Princess and the Pee

The turning of the calendar is always a good time to think about what I might want to do differently in the new year, but I don't make official new year resolutions. I just quietly file away my self-improvement ideas deep in my consciousness and hope to do a little better this year than last, no matter what the topic (money, diet, patience).

I made one of those un-official resolutions on January 1st with my boys: mark my words, we are going to try our best to not rack up library late fines in 2011. Our municipal library could create The Burkum Brothers Reading Nook after the fines it collected from us last year.

So I hopped on the library website to check what was due and when. Immediately, I thought there must be some mistake; this can't be my account. Among the expected Goosebumps for Luke and the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series for Kevin & me, I saw:

Tales of friendship [videorecording (DVD)
Snow White and the seven dwarfs [videorecording (DVD)]
Beauty shines from within [videorecording (DVD)
Enchanted tales. Follow your dreams [videorecording (DVD)
Disney princess. Enchanted journey [electronic resource (Wii)

But I don't have any daughters, I thought. Then I remembered, ah, yes, TJ is in his Princess Stage. And he's holding on to it with dear life.

Luke went through his Princess Stage around the same age rather quietly and without incident. Now that TJ is in his, Luke is not making it easy for him. The more Luke says, "that's for girls," the more TJ says "NO IT'S NOT. I LIKE PRINCESSES. THEY ARE NICE. YOU ARE NOT NICE. YOU ARE NOT A PRINCESS."

Like Luke at the same age, TJ is challenged with staying dry at night, so even though he's been in underpants since a few months after he turned two (although lately he has chosen to go commando most days), he wears pullups at night, just in case.

So of course he is wearing princess pullups.

That doesn't bother me. What bothers me are these princess DVDs. Not that he wants to watch them; but I watched one with him, and I was appalled. I thought I'd time-travelled back to 1953. This is what we're still feeding little girls, and the occasional boy in touch with his princess side? I thought we dropped that whole "prince saves the day" fairy tale soon after Prince Charles and Princess Diana called it quits? I had no idea they still made these stories, and that girls still watched them. Someone should be ashamed.

Our DVDs are on their way back to the library, on time I might add. While TJ's princess stage continues (remarkably longer than Luke's), he'll just have to settle for his princess coloring books.

Oh, and the pullups. Of course, the pullups. A diaper-free house is the real fairy tale here.