blame barbie

this picture really makes me chuckle.














speaking of presents....i am just...about......done with my list. hooray!
i have absolutely no idea how i am going to pack everything in our suitcase for Reno.....but it will be done!

have you seen how barbie™ crap is packaged? or really any kids stuff.....so much plastic packaging.....a huge plastic dome...this will somehow fit with other plastic bubbles in our suitcase.....

the bigger question here is why in hell did i actually purchase barbie crap for my child? after so many years of loudly protesting anything related to barbie...after the long conversations i had with a toddler about healthy body image and real expectations of beauty. after year after year saying "no" every single time riley asked "pleeeease can i have a barbie?"
why?
well.....because i am weak. because she wants it so bad. because, if you were to ask her why her mother doesn't like barbie, she would say "because women don't look like barbie".
and because i have found a tiny loophole in my own vapid rule. if the barbie is one of the disney princess's....then i guess it isn't that bad.....right?
so she will be getting the little mermaid....not barbie.....(this is what i tell myself). she is getting a pink pegasus...not the barbie fairy horse.


i can't believe we will be coming home with a puppy. i am so excited.

with any luck....the puppy will chew the barbie into flattened, punctured, scarred, burn victim with extreme deformities and missing limbs. this will give me an opportunity to lecture her about how everyone, even barbie, should be loved with flaws and missing parts. so what barbie only has one hand and is missing half her hair!.....she still has a good heart. and look how pretty her other hand is!

i have problems.
i blame the barbie's i played with as a child. and my parents, of course.

someday, riley will have serious issues because of me and my attempts to save her from the ugliness of the world. she will hate and resent me.

or maybe she won't and she will be totally rad and confident and creative and strong and will thank me for my amazing mothering.

or maybe she will be a little of both. like most of us.