I have a new topic for you in the Mom Guilt arena; Halloween Costumes. No, I’m not going to suggest you should make your own, anyone who has kids knows that’s a laughable suggestion, much less if you have multiples. No, I’ve got the guilty feeling in my stomach over something much less worth my consideration, yet it’s still there. I’m afraid I may have created a “costume biases” in my children. What is that you ask? Well, in our case it would seem, that my kids prefer Disney character costumes. I’m not sure when or how it happened, even that it really has happened at all. Just that I’ve noticed that we have pretty much been a Disney character every year. It’s not something I set out to do, it just seemed to happen. In my defense, Disney does put out some cute, well made costumes. And the princess thing is pretty rampant among girls this age anyway, but this year and last, my 6yo was/is not a princess. (Last year she was Hannah Montana, this year both girls are going to be Fairies.) For parents of boys only, Tinkerbelle now how a clique of friends being heavily marketed by the Disney machine.) It’s become obvious to me this year, because it’s the second year that my older daughter’s friends are all dressing in more generic costumes (witches, ninjas, spider girls, cheerleaders…) but mine is not. It’s not like I let them watch a ton of Disney channel, and they aren’t big into watching movies over 30 minutes, so I’m not really sure where it totally comes from.
Big, my oldest, is NOT into anything scary. She deemed the movie “Big” too scary this summer, so you can see scary severely limits her costume choices. But there’s still lots to choices out there. She could be any number of animals; cats, bunnies, puppies, mice or there are lots of generic costumes too; angels, cheerleaders, hippies, sock-hop girls, etc… But no, she knew she wanted to be “Silvermist,” (the water fairy) in June. My 3yo, (AKA-Little) I, so far, have some influence over, but in all honesty she so wants to be a “big girl” so badly that she’s bent on being a version of whatever her sister is, so she chose “Rosetta,” (the flower fairy), also in June. I made them both wait till September, sure that they would change their minds. But they never wavered, and the high end costumes go fast (I actually had to special order Silvermist from the Disney parks as the stores were out of the costumes in JUNE and not getting any more in.)
I love Disney, but I wouldn’t say I’m a mouseketeer in the full sense. I’m not one of those people who has a ticker on the bottom of my email counting down to my next Disney trip. Nor am I first in line for every new release. So, I’m trying to tell myself that it’s them, not me who has bought into the marketing ploys of the Disney machine, but a little voice inside of me keeps saying different.
Like I said, something not worthy of my time. I guess, my out is that I always get great pictures (and ultimately scrapbook pages). There’s no blood and guts (so far) and my girls look adorable. If they’re happy, I’m happy right? It’s all about their happiness…and a great scrapbook page.
Guest post for Mad About Multiples by Mamaspeak.
