I am so excited to have an essay published on Brain, Child Magazine’s blog today! As you know, I am a huge fan, and I am honored to be sharing a third post on their website this morning. I’m sharing a story about my eight-year-old daughter and her Easter dress this year; she insisted she wanted a “little girl” dress like her younger sister, and I couldn’t understand why. Here’s an excerpt:

“I want a dress like Sophie’s,” Izzy complained, while her three-year-old sister licked the mirror. “Hers spins better.”

It was true. The ability of a skirt to fan out, ballroom-gown-style, upon twirling, was one of my preschooler’s prerequisites when selecting a dress. It was, in fact, the only prerequisite. Her closet contained hangers of forlorn corduroy dresses that went unworn due to their subpar performance when spinning.

My eight-year-old wanted a dress like that: a full-skirted number with ribbons and bows, one better suited for Easter Sunday than this discount retailer’s attempt at haute couture. She wanted a dress like I had in the 1980s, one that would have undoubtedly been accompanied by a stiff-brimmed Easter hat with a pale pink ribbon. She wanted a little girl’s dress. And there were none to be found.

I hope you’ll stop by and read the entire essay at Brain, Child here!