This Morning's Daydreams

When I have a daughter, instead of dressing her during her little kid years, I'm going to ask her every day what she wants to wear. She wants to wear rain boots, a tutu, and overalls at the same time? Go for it. She wants to combine every orange item she owns? Awesome. Every morning will be its own fashion show.

I'll never tell her not to splash in mud puddles because she'll get her dress dirty. I'll help her learn anything she wants, whether it's embroidery or power tools or tap dancing or kung fu. I'll never tell her a chapter book is too far above her reading level.

When she's six and asking all the questions she's too young to understand the answers to yet, I'll give her the best, most magical answers I can come up with until she figures out the boring answers. Santa will answer all her letters, and always leave a present for the cat, but she'll know the real meaning of Christmas like she knows her own name. And speaking of her name, if she doesn't like it, she can make another one up until she does.

Storytime will be as important as dinnertime. Dinnertime will sometimes be ice cream, or brownies, or Captain Crunch. Rainy days will be play days, so she'll learn to never let the weather get her down. And when she's honest about her mistakes, she'll get a consequence... and a cookie. That way when she's seventeen and wrecks the car, the first person she'll call is me, and I'll be at the scene with a whole batch.

See you someday, little princess.