Sharing with my Daughter

When I was a child, one of my favorite books was Cinderella. I still have it. It is worn out and faded, hanging together, literally, by a thread. I’m not sure why I loved it so much. I wasn’t prone to pretending to be a princess, but I loved Cinderella and Snow White (that book is in much the same condition as my Cinderella). My daughter, Munchkin, has never really shown much interest in either of those books, let alone the movies. She has never been entirely interested in any of the princesses except Jasmine. I suspect it is Jasmine’s gauzy two-piece that jangles when she walks that Munchkin is most interested in. No, she doesn’t really like the princesses as much as the animals. In fact, we’ve been to Disney World three times and each time she was happy to meet both Cinderella and Snow White, but not as happy as she was to meet Timone and Rafiki.

Last night things seemed to take a different turn. My husband called from the video store to ask Munchkin which video she would like to watch that night: Cinderella or ?? Of course, Munchkin asked for Spy Kids instead. As luck would have it, Spy Kids was out and my husband came home with Cinderella. My daughter is entranced. Entranced I tell you. She is watching it for the second time this morning. I haven’t seen her this engrossed since she watched Shark Boy and Lava Girl for the one millionth time.

I have been trying figure out why I’m so happy she likes this movie. So many movies these days are loud and incoherent. The story is barely detectable amidst the special effects and off-color jokes meant for the adults accompanying their children. Cinderella has a story, magic, singing, animals, a happy ending. Simplicity. I do think my daughter is more interested in the fact that Cinderella can talk to animals and said animals morph from raggedy mice, dogs, and horses to regal footmen and horses. I loved that too. The bottom line is this: I’m pleased to have this part of my life in common with my daughter.