Boys and Princesses

The moment during your pregnancy that you learn you're having a creature with a penis, all dreams of tea parties, doll play and magical princess moments goes floating right out of the glitter spackled window.
Why? Because we're taught, or maybe it's ingrained in us that boys are "not supposed" to play with dolls or girly things- and for the most part, they don't seem to want to. Progressive parenting would tell you not to encourage social norms on kids and just let them march to the beat of their own drum- but even being lax on gender specific toys, somehow boys still gravitate toward actions heroes and matchbox cars and girls gravitate toward dolls an other things of the frilly pink nature (I have two boys, I have trouble coming up with more examples as I am completely out of touch with what little girls like these days).

When it comes to taking your little boys to Disney, you quickly realize that you're getting the short end of the stick. There is so much there seemingly directed at little girls and princesses and things you wouldn't expect boys to be interested, that you feel as though it's unfair. What are the boys going to do? Why is there SO much for girls, SO many more cool experiences (like eating IN Cinderella's castle), while the boys get what? Stuck with Mickey, or an incredibly expensive opportunity to have a pirate makeover?

My boys LOVE Disney movies, but when it comes to the princesses, not much of it piques their interest, so even though I could easily force them to stand in a 45 minute wait to meet Cinderella (while the line for Mickey was 10 minutes, wtf?), what would be the point? And how would they even be treated if the princesses are there almost solely to keep little girls with princess dreams happy?

Lo and behold, along came Tangled. A princess movie with a boy-oriented swashbuckling twist on the storyline, or that's what the ads for it said anyways. I wasn't quite sure, but once we all saw it- we ALL fell in love. The humor, the sword fighting, Flynn "Eugene" Ryder, Maximus, and of course, Pascal. It became a favorite, even over Cars (GASP!)
When I heard you could meet Rapunzel at Disney last year, we hadn't seen it yet so we weren't interested in the horribly long wait- but we HAD to go this year. If there was one non-fuzzy headed character to meet, this would be it (even though we were disappointed to know there was no actor playing Flynn this time around).

The wait was horribly long. HORRIBLY. And my boys were the ONLY boys in line, so I actually became nervous of how it would go down. Would Rapunzel give them weird looks, or just not care as much as the little girls obsessed with BEING her?

Let me tell you, I have been wrong before (NOT often, but it HAS happened. DOUBLE GASP)- but never this wrong.
Once it was the boys turn to meet Rapunzel, and they ran to her and were met with a huge warm smile and open arms, all the stress I felt over the boys not being treated the same while doing something "girl oriented" was washed right out of the window.. or.. castle. Whatever.
It was a VERY special moment. She engaged them in conversation and made them feel like they were Flynn Ryder.
I dare even say that it was even a special moment for her, seeing two little boys so excited to meet her, probably because it happens so infrequently

Parker wore the lipstick print on his cheek ALL day with pride- I dare say it may have been his favorite Disney moment; and to think we would have missed out on it had we followed the "norm" and just saddled with taking him to be a pirate instead (which he also would have loved, i'm sure). 

And we can't forget meeting Aladdin and Jasmine

Parker just can't resist a pretty lady, and apparently
the feeling was very mutual.

Had I listened to the nerves or heeded the odd looks we received by getting in long lines of little girls in costumes, we would have missed out on all of these special experiences had we followed the "norm" of Boys- Pirates, Girls- Princesses. 

The fact of the matter is, they can do both- and why not nurture that? Why not let them branch out and experience new things, even if it's something people might tell you "only little boys play with!" or "that's a girl's toy"? 

Who knows, they might just be met with open arms and create a special memory to last a lifetime- and those moments should be treasured, not passed up because of stereotypes.