My Facebook feed is full of friends that have little girls. They post pictures with captions about their boos, mini-me’s, monsters, nuggets and other adorable nicknames that happen upon our children. We tend to favor toot-toot and nugget in our household. Yep, we call our kid a fart basically. I can tell you the one thing that we don’t call her is a name that many love to call their little girls, princess.
Please, don’t call my daughter a princess.
I know I’m in the minority here but since before we even found out we were having a girl, my husband and I were on the same page about this. We are not royalty. I know, let that sink in for a minute. We don’t have someone waiting on us hand and foot, we don’t have staff, we don’t have an endless bank account and a room of tiaras waiting to be passed down to our child. Our daughter is not a princess and I’m not about to ever make her think she is one. She doesn’t get to have attitude and one day grow up to be a damsel in distress, waiting on her prince because essentially that is what they are portrayed as and that is what history shows them to be.
I’m not trying to hinder her childhood or crush her dreams. She isn’t even into princesses yet and that is totally fine if she is one day. I can call her a princess when she is playing dress up or on Halloween. She can get lost in fairy tales and know all the stories if she is interested. I want her imagination to go wild. I swear I’m not boycotting Disney! But princesses are for play, not for real life.
More importantly, I’m not teaching my daughter that she is above everyone else with that title.
Sure, you might say it is just a word and I’m being over dramatic but it carries weight. I swear I will eat my words one day if my daughter happens to literally find a prince and becomes a legit princess but that is a chance I’ll take. I’ll stick to calling her a toot for the time being because obviously that doesn’t have any weird, long-term effects.
Through My Mistakes 
I am with you 100%
I don’t buy the princess story at at all, damsel in distress.. If I had a girl, I would want her to be tough as nails, strong and independent.. but with a heart of gold and the humility of a tree.
You should maybe teach your child about the Queen of Jhansi, she is one queen all women should emulate!
All of this, exactly. My family is Irish and her middle name is actually Maeve, which is a well known Queen of Ireland that was tough as can be. I will have to look up your suggestion though. Never heard of her!
Yeah, I have special spot for her because she told the British empire (F you) because they refused to accept her adopted son as the king of her country and then fought them single handedly and died a martyr.
YES!!! I so totally agree with this. I have a friend who calls her daughter “Princess P” as her nickname and her child is 2 years old and already living up to the name. I am all for nicknames, but ones like that just don’t resonate with me. Hence why H is called “little monster” as my term of endearment. Sometimes I will crank out “sweet boy” as a nickname, which I figure can’t hurt if that sticks with his persona. But, I digress. I think you’re awesome for choosing a unique name that is specific to Cora that is special to your family. Cora is a special little girl all on her own and she will stand a head above all of the little girls even without the “Princess” name because she has awesome parents raising her to be so well-rounded!
Thanks! I am all about the cute names we call our kiddos but man, I just can’t do the princess thing. I want much more for her in life!
Exactly!! So awesome! The only time I call H “prince” is in a eye rolling sarcastic way when he’s standing at the top of the stairs hollering at me telling me what toy he’s insisting I bring up to him. I say to my husband “there he goes. Prince H making his demands for the toys he is too lazy to come down and get himself *insert eye roll here*”
Ha yes you won’t find me calling Aviana princess either ☺️ also in South London where I’m from it’s used as a derogatory name, someone who acts snobish and appears to think highly of themselves!!!
Well that is good to know! How crazy!
Seriously you are my favorite mom to follow on an social media. I love the way you parent and how I can relate to your posts.
Haha well thanks!
I love this – I actually hate that term generally too, for kids or adults alike (even worse for adults LOL!). I love that you call her toot-too. it’s so adorable!