My Daughter

My little girl is so much like me and yet different than me. I guess most parents feel that way. Today she is doing something that reminds me so much of me at her age. She just watched Cinderella. She has seen it before but not in a long time. After watching it she dressed up and asked me to put a scarf and a apron on her. I saw her dress up Cinderella dress laid out on the bed. She's playing "Cinderella." She's running around the house singing her own made up Cinderella-like songs.

I used to do exactly the same thing. Whenever I watched something on television or read a book that I really liked I would reenact the story or make up my own and play the characters. My cousins and I used to play "Happy Days" too. My boy cousin who was younger than us always played Fonzie and we would straddle the arm of the sofa and pretend it was our motorcycle.

Even as I grew into a pre-teen I would still play out stories I read. I really think that this vivid imagination contributed to my becoming a writer.

So when I saw her playing "Cinderella" today I cracked up and it brought bad good memories. I helped her get dressed in her outfit. I tied her scarf and her apron strings. I suggested that if the baby is going to play the mouse he should really put on his Mickey Mouse hat.

I'll do whatever I can to support her using her imagination. I would rather see her playing with her imagination than watching television her whole vacation.