Spoiled Rotten Princess...

Seriously... if I hear one more grown-ass woman call their daughter "Princess", I'm going to BEAT.THEM.SENSELESS!

Here's the thing, I totally understand why the Disney Princesses are so popular. They are beautiful, blemish-free, thin, proper ladies who have snagged the man of their dreams and are now living worry-free in a ginormous castle/mansion/palace that they will never have to clean. I want that too! Hell, I would settle for being thin and owning my own home, but that's just me. I get wanting your daughter to be "girly" and playful and have tea parties and especially wanting them to dream big and aspire to be anything they want to be. I want all that for my daughter, too. But I sure as hell am not going to sit around and encourage her to be the spoiled, snotty, entitled little girl that you find today. Because that is what has happened to these girls now by using the term "Princess".

Future Engineer Las Vegas Showgirl!

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was not an actual Princess, but her, along with Princess Grace, Princess Diana and even the newly tiara'd Princess Kate... these were/are classy, intelligent, educated women. They were courted and treated with respect, they bowed and curtsied and knew their place. They were appropriately attired (read: no tata's or bare va-jay-jay's hanging out all over the place), spoke calmly and eloquently, were civilized and just all around decent women. All I see today are rude, obnoxious little girls who think they were placed on this earth so that you could serve them. Prime Example: Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, all 16 5 of the Kardashian girls. These chicks are famous because they are rich, spoiled girls, NOT because they have done amazing and incredible things with their lives.

These days if a girl turns 12 and isn't immediately handed a smartphone, credit card, facebook account, some sort of "Pod" made by Apple (damn you Apple!), and a credit card, then they whine and complain and throw tantrums like a 3 year old and insist that you must hate them and want them to die. I know this to be true because I have seen this with my own eyes... in public and in private.

How can you not love all that hair?

Two of my nieces are 13 years old and one of them has had an iPhone since she was 11. Her Mother gave it to her and keeps upgrading it whenever they come out with a new version. They actually had an argument the other day on facebook (Mom lives in NJ, about 4 hours away) because the contract isn't up yet, but my niece "broke" her phone and wanted a new one. Ok, let's flash back for a minute. When I was 11 I had a hello kitty diary with a sparkly pink pen, tons of those puffy stickers, a pink banana-seat bike and posters of NKOTB on my wall (with a big heart drawn around Jordan Knight's face). Remember when you begged and pleaded for money because you just HAD TO HAVE that pair of Jordache jeans or those mulit-color hi-tops or the hyper-color shirts because "all the other kids" were wearing them? Usually you could scrape a few extra bucks together by babysitting or doing some extra chores. But it's not like that anymore. Yes, some of it is technology's fault for advancing so quickly that these kids kind of don't have a choice BUT to grow up and expect these things. Now all of a sudden every one of the kids at your children's school ACTUALLY DO HAVE EVERYTHING. Even the kids you thought were on welfare are walking around with blinged out cell phones!

It's just so much worse amongst the girls, too. And it only exacerbates the issue when they go home and Mommy and Daddy call them "Princess". I have called The Girl "Diva" on occasion because she has been know to get demanding. But I have never said it in a way that would make her think that it's a good thing. Because The Girl is going to know 3 things as soon as she is old enough to understand:

1. If you want to be respected, then be respectful. Respect is earned, not given away like a lollypop at the bank.
2. Be Thankful - for everything from the minute you wake up each day. And the moment you stop, I'm donating everything you own to a kid that has nothing.
3. Everything can change in an instant - for better or worse. So take nothing for granted and thank God you were one of the lucky ones that got to be born in America and not some 3rd world nation.

So please, Ladies, PLEASE for the love of Maude, STOP calling your little girls "Princess". It's not healthy. Unless your daughter actually IS a Princess, then by all means... *curtsies*

Adios, people.