I have Princess Presto power!!!

Earlier today, about seven hours ago, to be exact, I heard of a book titled "My Princess Boy" from another Mom via Twitter. The book was written by a Mother (Cheryl Kilodavis) in reaction to dealing with the response from others to the desire of her son to dress like a princess. I was instantly curious, as I have blogged about and have been dealing with gender roles recently with my own children. I read the article she linked to and as I expected, some of the comments were malicious and very ignorant on the subject. I shared the link to the article here, on Twitter and Facebook and figured I would read more about it another day.


Then I thought more about the comments and decided to order the book to read it for myself. I checked out the books' website and found a link to order the book online from several retailers. I saw Barnes & Noble in the list and placed my order. Then it occurred to me to check and see if my local Barnes & Noble had the book in stock. Sure enough they did, so I reserved a copy and anxiously waited for a confirmation e-mail saying the books had arrived. I was guessing it would be a day or two. Lo and behold, I just happened to check my e-mail in-box about an hour later - and surprise - the book was at the store!!

So off I went, with my oldest daughter in tow, to run errands, including a stop at Barnes & Noble. It was super easy to pick up the book and soon we were back home, eager to read. I did not talk to my children about the book in advance, so they had no idea of its content, nor of the way I found out about it. I waited (un)patiently for my husband to read his pick and then it was my turn.

I was not disappointed in the book at all. I admire the way that Cheryl approached the subject and the concise details. My son and daughter reacted in a way that I was very proud of. My son commented that he thought the people that made fun of the boy (for dressing like a princess) were mean and immature. My daughter acted like the story was not unusual in any way and wanted to read it after I was done. In fact, so did my son.

I am very glad that I bought the book. The idea of acceptance that Cheryl promotes in her book is exactly what I try to model and teach my children. I believe what a person wears has very little to do with who they are as a person. Whether my son wears purple, black, or pink has no bearing on whether he is a boy or how much I love him. I can only hope that there are more Mothers teaching unconditional acceptance like Cheryl, myself, and this Mom.

So after all is said and done - I will have a second copy of the book soon. I think I will give it away here on my blog. I have no idea when or how - stay tuned for the details!