2 out of 3

I went again to volunteer at the children's center tonight. Once again it was NOT the chaotic mess that it was the first time. I am so happy about that.

The little boy who I played with last time was still there. We started to play the same game as last time, but he moved on quickly to more exciting things. (That game was soooo last week.)

I spent a lot of time tonight with a bright 6-year-old girl. She was soft spoken, but warmed up after a while. We talked during snack time and she told me she wanted to be a Princess for Halloween. I told her that she was just selling out to mainstream society's idea that women can only be helpless, beautiful creatures who have to wait around to be saved by their Prince Charming. I told her to smarten up and stop believing that twisted fairy tale that will never come true.

Of course I didn't say that.



She asked me what I was going to be for Halloween. I said that I hadn't thought about it. She smiled and said, "A Princess?" I said, "Sure!" Then she closed her eyes and said, "I am seeing you in my brain." She was imagining me as a Princess.

Later we read books together. She wasn't so interested in the story but always wanted to know the names of everyone on the page. She also wanted to know how to spell my name and then looked for each letter on the page. We read a Barbie book and I pointed out how freakishly skinny the Barbies were and how it sets up young girls to have a distorted view of their own body image and unrealistic expectations about what normal size is. (No. I didn't.)

She told me she misses her sister. I told her that I'm sure her sister misses her too.

When it was time to go she hugged me and I told her that I had fun reading with her and that she was really good at colors (one of the books was about colors.) What a sweet child.