The One About Glitter, Dreams, and the Little Mermaid
We were doing something that we’ve done dozens of times - Alexis and I were cuddled up on the couch watching The Little Mermaid. It is and has always been her favorite Disney movie, but for some reason, we hadn’t watched it together in probably a year or so.
Still, I should have figured it out sooner.
As Alexis focused on the action happening on the screen, occasionally reciting lines of the movie along with the characters, I sat focused on Alexis. She is the kid who has never met a shiny thing she didn’t want to own. She marvels at the world every time she turns a corner. She walks through life swishing her tail and singing a song. She has her own voice, her own way of viewing the world, and she’s going to follow her heart no matter what anybody says.
Sound familiar?
I should have realized it years ago. After all, the writing was on the GIANT MIRRORED WALL.
Ariel. Ariel is and has always been Alexis’ favorite Disney Princess. Ariel. Alexis. Ariel = Alexis.
Is there a correlation between your favorite Disney Princess and your personality? I can’t say for sure, but at least in the case of Alexis, HOOBOY, IS THERE EVER.
(An aside, my favorite Disney Princess is Jasmine. You know, the stubborn, independent cat lover. Ummm … yeah.)
There is one glaring difference between The Little Mermaid and Alexis’ life, however. While King Triton was busy trying to force Ariel to live her life the way he wanted her to live it, I’m all FOLLOW THAT PATH, GIRL! I don’t need Alexis to run away and give her voice to an evil sea witch for me to figure out that she’s a very different person from me. Her happiness is dependent on her finding her voice and following her dreams.
Alexis and I may never agree on the value of sparkly things, the importance of pompoms, or the joy to be found in singing a song all day long, but she knows I love her all the same. Glitter and all.
The Little Mermaid will be available for the first time on Blu-ray Combo Pack and HD Digital October 1st. To celebrate, Disney and BlogHer are offering you a chance to win $50 Visa Gift Card and a Little Mermaid Diamond Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack. To enter to win, just tell me in the comments below: How do you encourage your children to follow their dreams?
Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: ""#SweepstakesEntry""; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post"
c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 9/9/13 - 10/15/13.
Be sure to visit the Disney's Little Mermaid page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!
Monday, September 9, 2013
Reader Comments (176)
Isabella loves Little Mermaid too. Everyday she asks us to get her a mermaid tail... A REAL ONE. Guess what our Halloween will consist of? I am not sure how many more times I can sit through the movie, however. She is singing every song, reciting so many lines! ACK!!
I'm more like Princess Belle. A bibliophile, and willing to see through the exterior of one's mask. :)
I encourage my children to follow their dreams by supporting their ideas, and hanging back to let them figure things out. I help when asked. Whatever they wanna do, I'm all for it... Unless it's replicating Evel Knievel.
Love the photos. :) I always thought I encouraged mine to follow their hearts. In many ways I have, as evidenced by their nearly grown personalities, but the teen years are tough. I understand Triton a little more now that we've been through it. :) My oldest is pursuing her music, the middle his artistic side and desire to be an engineer, and the youngest is blossoming. He wants to be a salesman. Shoot me now.
My favorite princess, btw, is Leia. Does she count? If not, it's Mulan.
I'm a Belle girl - which suits me perfectly, given that reading is like air to me.
I have let Ben try many things over the years. Always asking what he wants and then trying to make it happen for him to get places and do the things he loves.
By following their lead and giving some gentle nudging when they are short on motivation.
Ok, so my children are pretty little right now (3 years and 10 months), but I'm learning with the older one. I encourage my daughter by talking to her. We talk about what she likes, doesn't like, did in school, would like to do as a family....as much as I can glean from a 3-year old, at least. For example, her dream last month was to eat dinner at the zoo as a family. Dream discovered, discussed and viola dream achieved. Obviously, dreams will be getting bigger soon, but I'm just going to try and keep on talking, discovering and discussing where we can!
I like Tiana best. Sabrina waivers between Rapunzel and Jasmine. Tessa is an Ariel lover all the way.
I try hard to provide opportunities for them to explore new things without pushing them into what I think they should/would like. It is a hard balance. I think Sabrina will be a cheerleading fan but I don't want it to be a self fulfilling thing by signing her up for it by default. But how will she know otherwise? If I ask, she wants to do it all! LOL>
My kids like to dream big and I don't ever tell them they can't be (insert whatever princess, superhero, or animal here). Sure, maybe they can't ever be an ACTUAL monkey, but who's to say they won't be a team mascot and dress up like one on a regular basis (maybe not my first pick as a career for a child of mine, but not really my choice, now is it?).
Jasmine is my favorite princess, followed closely by Belle. Jasmine was the only princess that I insisted on having my photo taken with - alone - on our most recent WDW trip. Yes, I'm a dork. I don't care.
I loved the Little Mermaid as a kid. I think she was my favorite because, at the time, she was the only redhead princess, and of course, being a redhead myself, I could relate to her the most through looks alone. Personality wise? I don't think they have a shy and socially awkward princess, so I'm kinda out of luck there.
Ariel has always been Jena's favorite as well, although she recently added Tiana & Rapunzel into the list of "favorites".
I've never really been a princess girl myself, although I do enjoy Disney movies :)
I encourage my sons to follow their dreams by cheering them on, no matter what it is that they are doing or how well they're doing it :)
Delaney is a HUGE Ariel fan! So much that I have had to recently keep her from swiping forks and spoons from restaurants (And MIL's house) for her "collection!" I try hard to encourage them to try to do whatever they wish! I know as they get older, it will get more difficult, but for now, if they want to try something new, I make it happen the best I can. I want them to have opportunities I didn't have as a child so I will never tell them it's silly or not to give it a try!
My daughter, who just turned 4 a few days ago, loves art and music so I encourage her to be creative and I have her enrolled in ballet class.
tweet--https://twitter.com/mami2jcn/status/377179821958123520
Deacon loves playing soccer. I never, ever wanted to be a soccer mom. I signed him up two years in a row for it, despite never wanting to be that mom.
I also let him do his own thing by telling people forever that his favorite color was pink. It's recently changed to purple, but he took all the jabs preschool aged boys gave him with a grain of salt. It was really cool to see, actually.
By giving safe choices. That way, she can explore but with limits that I'm comfortable with. But that does mean that sometimes I have to go along with a choice that isn't my favorite!
Delightful post! I love Disney!! We were frequent visitors there when my daughter was growing up. I encouraged her to follow her dreams by exposing her to everything I could. We didn't have a lot of money, but we sure had a lot of fun adventures and learning experiences. As a single mom on a very tight shoestring, my hope was to lead by example and show her that 'the world was her oyster'!
My favorite princess is Cinderella - something to do with my love of shoes and believing that a pair of shoes can change it all. My daughter on the other hand......not sure. But, if someone was to ask me what I thought...I'd say she was a Merida, from Brave. My daughter marches to the beat of her own drum with a spring in her step, a mischievous grin on her face and such a passion for life that I have never seen. Maybe its because it's only her and I, and we have to keep pushing each other forward towards our dreams, but, damn, I there are days where I sit back and think "I can sure learn something from this Mayhem Maker of mine".
I tell my children everyday to "be proud of who you are."
We are big believers in letting our daughter do what she wants, within reason. We don't force anything on her, but let her choose her own direction and help guide her along her way.
OMG Tiny Alexis! SO CUTE.
We encourage Alex by reminding him that he can do anything he sets his mind to; even things that are hard, he will eventually get. Over time, he's starting to believe us ;)
I like to let them choose their activities, within reason, and always try something new. I love to let them pick out their own clothes, and always tell them great job, even if they do look a little bit like the kid from "Big Daddy." :)
PS: My favorite Disney princesses growing up were Cinderella and Ariel. Zoey is currently stuck on Rapunzel and Ariel.
My daughter is 6. The year she loved dinosaurs we made her a dinosaur costume for Halloween. We watch endless episodes of Wild Kratts to learn about animals. She loves science and nature and animals. We live in the city so I drive out to the burbs once a week for a nature class where kids hike and investigate and romp in ponds and woods. She has a shelf of non fiction books in her book case. I schlep her to gymnastics once nor twice a week. I guess we listen to her, watch her and then look for ways to encourage her interests and support it. I feel lucky that we can.
The Little Mermaid is the fave in our house too. I always tell my kiddo, I don't care if you're wrong - as long as you're wrong with conviction and confidence!
We provide as many opportunities as possible for our children to experience new things so that they can find what they love in life. I don't want to hold them back at all.
I encourage kids to go for their dreams and passions by supporting their ideas.
tcarolinep at gmail dot com
-https://twitter.com/tcarolinep/status/377628678609321984
With four girls under my roof, princess is a way of life. Fortunately, so are a lot of other fun, silly, artistic, creative things. There's only so much tiaras and sparkles I can take.
Here's my tweet https://twitter.com/laprimera/status/378005903355547648
I encourage them to meet many different children and try many activities, be socialized for the real world
https://twitter.com/HappyTina0115/status/378240303800389632
I encourage my kids to follow my dreams by....
* being a hard-working mama role model
* talking to them about their futures
* encouraging imaginary play
I encourage them by always giving them a positive response and supporting their ideas.
jslbrown_03 at yahoo dot com
tweet - https://twitter.com/LuLu_Brown24/status/378502677337886720
jslbrown_03 at yahoo dot com
My sons both love to use their imaginations. We've bought them some costumes so they can play the part, toys that relate to who they're being, and feed them/ make their food relate to their parts too! It's so funny to hear them call grapes dog food :)
I never tell my daughter something she wants to do is impossible. And she's smart enough that I don't believe anything is anyway. :)
chambanachik(at)gmail(dot)com
We encourage our kids to be what God created them to be, to use their talents to achieve their dreams and to never let anyone tell them they can't have/accomplish what they desire.
my tweet https://twitter.com/neiddy_ruiz/status/381049698670223361
Being supportive, positive and encouraging and always speaking positive words. Its so important to let them know nothing is impossible
https://twitter.com/disneyfan40/status/381824063817011200
Tweet: https://twitter.com/OneFrugalGirl/status/376427897612812290
By making them believe they are capable of anything and everything!
Just by encouraging her. Right now she does not have any lofty goals. But I just tell her to do her best.
Ariel is our favorite too.
My 4 year old loves to do anything crafty. So we have a billion and a half art supplies around the house and she is allowed to use whatever whenever the mood strikes...sometime its messy but its what she loves so we just have to deal with it!
My son is so, so very different and yet crazily the same as me. I HOPE he knows I love him (as he gets older) because I cheer him on in the things that I just can't relate to & the things that I do. Letting him find his path and his voice and his passions are so important to me.
I remember seeing The Little Mermaid for the first time--my very first movie where my mom just dropped me and a friend off at the theater and didn't stay! Freedom!
I encourage my kids to follow their dreams by reminding them how awesome they are and how much I love them...like, all the time. I think it annoys them. But maybe one day they'll be grateful. ;)
lots of praise for trying
lots of praise for trying
lots of praise for trying
By accepting that my kids will be so different than me! And not forcing my own passions on them, but letting them explore life.