Barbie Girl

I just spent a good hour playing Barbie with Brooklyn. She's still playing with them, actually. I remember thinking at some point that I wouldn't let my daughter play with those things - where its all about beauty and fashion and outward appearances rather than inner beauty....but then my little girl fell in love with all things pink and princess-y. And then I remembered all the fun I had - literally, years of fun - playing with my Barbie dolls. I turned out okay. Well, maybe I do have a few quirks but I don't think Barbie is to blame for those....

I find myself just as excited about Barbie as my three-and-a-half-year-old. Don't laugh. Barbie has such cute clothes and compared to the other girls' dolls on the market these days, Barbie is very modest and not nearly so trendy. Her dimensions have been altered to be a little more realistic as well. Almost every little girl really loves dressing up a doll - before Barbie it was paper dolls and now the toy stores are full of different dolls that come with more accessories than Paris Hilton could dream of! I can't explain the phenomenon but I certainly understand my little girl's fascination with a pretty, plastic woman with lots of clothes and a pink car. Those are things I'll never have in real life (and don't really want) but playing with an imaginary person who can get away with wearing hot pink every day of the week is just plain fun.

Have you seen the "Barbie as..." movies? They are surprisingly well done with good themes about inner beauty - kindness, compassion, love, selflessness, responsibility, family, etc. I actually love watching the Barbie movies with my little girl. They are clean (without the adult-themed innuendos so prevalent in kids' films today), have really nice music, and include all the things that appeal to a little girl's imagination - singing, dancing, cute animals that talk, princesses and a handsome prince!

I'm glad I have girls!