Outnumbered

Today for the very first time (in possibly forever) I think I have been able to sympathize with the feelings that Tony experiences on a daily basis. We have three girls, right? I remember when the oldest was a baby and I tried to give her a baby doll, Tony showed her how to shove it aside and say, “Ick! Dolls are for sissies!” Yes, you read that right…it was Tony who said this and yes, he was saying it to our DAUGHTER! I had a fit, of course, but soon found out that was the first of many attempts to try and make our daughters in “tough” girls.

Fast forward a few years and you will find out that in spite of Daddy’s efforts, our daughters did discover that nurturing instinct deep inside themselves. They did go on to enjoy playing with baby dolls…rocking them to sleep, feeding them with magic bottles (remember the disappearing juice and milk?) and changing their clothes.

But somewhere later along the line, our girls started caring more about gadgets and less about baby dolls for Christmas. I still insisted that Christmas wasn’t Christmas without a baby doll under the tree. But after a few years of buying them and finding them at the bottom of the toy box a few weeks later, I figured I was fighting a losing battle.

During these same years however, my girls spent hours scouring the American Girl catalog and website dreaming of a doll of their very own. This year, knowing that Britnee was getting older and would not even be interested in that in a year or so, I really wanted to take the girls to the American Girl store in Chicago on our way up to Michigan and let them pick out their own doll for Christmas. This would be the only gift they would receive but one I thought they would appreciate.

Tony wasn’t convinced. In fact, he wanted to buy each girl a their own GameBoy. I was pretty much dead-set against this and my reasoning was, it wouldn’t stop at the expense of the game unit, we would have to buy games and they aren’t all cheap! He conceded and we went on to have a very enjoyable shopping experience, choosing fun gifts to fit each girl’s unique personality (unlike other years when we’ve shopped for deals only or purchased many similar things for each girl).

Last night, December 21, two girls were in bed with fevers. We had promised them the chance to open their presents early because we thought we would be packing and headed to Michigan today or tomorrow. Tony had one more present to buy me so he headed to town. He came back a couple hours later, feeling like he’d been gone forever. Then he confessed why…he felt bad for the girls having to delay our trip and he imagined how bummed out they felt lying in bed, sick. So he decided to go over budget and purchase a GameBoy Advance and a GameBoy Micro plus two games. Okay, not one for each girl, but still…then he also mentioned that I was probably upset since he went ahead and did that but hadn’t allowed me the American Girl Christmas I wanted. Well, to be honest, until he mentioned it, I hadn’t thought of it. Of course, that conversation took place int the space of a couple minutes. But today it has been on my mind. I made the mistake of asking the girls after all the gifts were opened which they would have preferred. Each one adamantly proclaimed that they were VERY HAPPY with the GameBoy. I am seriously outnumbered here.

So in protest, I refuse to walk any of them through the difficult parts of the games that frustrate them so. That is their dad’s job. He’s the one who taught them to dislike dolls!