A Long Post About My Kid, With a Cool Pic at the End.

I see it as a big responsibility to raise a daughter these days. I need Princess to be strong and tough and not take anyone's crap, have confidence in me that if someone wrongs her in any way that she can tell me and I will kick ass for her, while also making sure she is polite and caring and "good." It's a tall order.

I am always working with her on what to do if she is picked on. The boys in her daycare who are slightly older - meaning like 4 or 5 years old - pick on the younger girls and call them babies or say silly things like, Princess you don't have long hair. When she does have long hair. Silly. But it makes Princess so upset that she cries and can’t sleep because she is running it all over and over in her head when she goes to bed. I don’t get why she is so sensitive (but I think my mom’s genes may be to blame. Sorry mom.). So I have been teaching her what to say – like, "Michael, and I am so three years old and I am not a baby, so you are obviously not very smart. Now get away from me."

We practice this. We also practice how to knock someone down if they hit you. We do this only because there is a little boy in her class who hits everyone, all the time, and I am not having that. The kid needs to get knocked down and I am fine with it being my kid who does it. I even told the teacher, if this kid hits Princess one more time, I am going to have to start teaching her how to knock him unconscious since you are not stopping it. She looked at me in shock, but she could tell I meant it. They just love me there.

Anyhoo, this is a hard part of being a parent. I don't want her to be a bully or to hit other kids without provocation, but I also don’t want her getting picked on. I think she needs to learn to defend herself, preferably with the art of sarcasm and wit, as early as possible. She has a mean face she makes when she is mad and I am trying to get her to use it with people other than me and Hub. While its not as intimidating as my mean face, its pretty good. Check it out.