My Happy Place

 

I've been bumming lately, at least I have today. It may have something to do with Kendyl waking up at 3am this morning and staying up. 

So instead of blogging about bumming stuff, I'm going to my happy place. And that, at times, means pageants.

I love baby pageants.

By the way, this is a pageant we participated in, although Kendyl isn't in the picture.

I love the dresses, the pretty little girls, (and handsome little boys too!) I love socializing with the other pageant moms and hearing about new pageants that we haven't been to yet. 

A community not dissimilar to the mommy-blog community.

Most of all, I love spending a day concentrating and worrying about something that doesn't really matter.

If I'm totally obsessed with hair, and shoes and gems falling off the dress... and so on and so forth... I'm not stressing about bills and potty-training and proper nutrition and education... and also so on and so forth.

We get to go into princess pretend world, and only worry about princess pretend things. If everything goes wrong and the pageant is an epic fail, the worst that happens is that Kendyl doesn't win a title.

And what exactly do you do with a small child who doesn't like toys? (Seriously, she doesn't have a single favorite toy, or even one that she's particularly fond of) 

She likes her dress though, and pretty patent leather shoes, and hair things and purses and makeup and swimwear, and mostly... being on stage! Center of attention, the ideal spot for a drama-queen in training!

Our last pageant, she cried and cried and wiggled and wiggled. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, until I went to put her down. I realized what her problem was when she began dancing. I'm guessing the judges got it too, because everyone laughed and she won first alternate, even though she had spent 90% of her stage time screaming to be put down.

We connect at pageants. It's the only time she doesn't cry when getting her hair put up, or uncomfortable clothes on, or misses her nap. It's something we can do together, just mother and daughter... and gives her all the attention she wants. (For a moment at least)

Getting prepared for the pageant gives us a hobby. Matching hairpieces to the dress, finding frilly socks that aren't stretched, borrowing the perfect shoes, refitting the dress, and raising money for the event through fundraising and raffle tickets. It makes for weeks of entertainment.

And coming home and showing Daddy trophies, tiaras and sashes isn't bad either.

Many people, I find, are very anti-pageant. I think pageants are lovely. Natural is nice, but glitzy is awesome. Where else can a little girl dress up like a total fancy princess outside of home other than Halloween?

It builds confidence and self esteem. It teaches little girls that they are beautiful and classy, glamorous and lady-like... and then, they can strip off the fancy clothes, put on a cap and play baseball too. 

Theres a value in being able to do things that boys can do, and there's a value in being a girl, and being a girl is something special... something beautiful and precious. Something that a boy can't do.

When a girl sees herself as special and beautiful, she puts a value on that. And eventually, when she grows up and the boys start to take notice, she wont shortchange herself. Because if she recognizes her value, it's not going to be something she takes lightly.

Wow. That got way more serious than I wanted it to.

We haven't done a pageant in a while, I think April. I'm dying to put her in another one. I need the break, and a dress fix. And it's time for my little drama-queen to take the stage again. It would do us both some good.

Dress fix!

Kendyl's idol, the magnificent... Eden Wood!