When I grow up.

We’ve been watching the Shrek series with the boy in the past few weeks and it got me thinking about fairy tales and cartoons and how they affect us…

“When I grow up, I want to marry a charming prince on a dashing horse, I want to live in a majestic castle and have gorgeous, well-behaved, blonde, blue-eyed babies, with dimpled smiles and winning personalities. I want to be beautiful, soft-spoken and cultured. I want long flowing locks and bejeweled gowns, rosy cheeks and a dazzling white smile. I want to pick flowers in my secret garden as I sing romantic songs about my enviable life in perfect tune. When I grow up.” This is what I imagined my life would be like when I was a little girl, give or take a few details. Thanks Walt.

Do I feel short-changed? Not really. In the real world, I married a prince who indeed manages to be occasionally charming, though also often irritating to the point of madness (or, alternatively, to the point of stabbing him repeatedly with a dull knife in the back), I live in a decently sized house (for Italy), though it’s only ours for another three years when the lease runs out. I have two gorgeous, occasionally well-behaved, blondish, brown-eyed, babies. No dimples, but great personalities that I haven’t managed to screw up completely, for now. I am neither beautiful, soft spoken nor cultured though I do invest quite a bit in books and cosmetics so one could consider me a work in progress. Flowing locks and bejeweled gowns are unfortunately not conducive to my lifestyle, so it’s short and easy to style and jeans and sweaters, but I do enjoy the glass slippers. Rosy cheeks and dazzling smiles can be bought, but the singing, I’ve realized, is annoying for all especially me. I kind of wish we had the dashing horse though.