The Farmer in the Dell

So we get a note home from Curly's Kindergarten teacher on Friday telling us that the kids are to come to school on Monday dressed as a farmer or a farm animal. We are not to run out and buy anything, just use what is around the house. Fair enough. I think we can manage that.

Then Curly tells me she does not want to be a farmer. She wants to be a farmer's wife. EXCUSE ME? Did I fail? Does she not know that women can be so much more than some one's wife? That women can be farmers, doctors, teachers, lawyers, basketball players, movie starts, dentists, accountants, etc? The woman's libber in me died a little death.

She went on to say that she wanted to wear a big poofy dress and a hula hoop. Apparently, my daughter thinks that they are dressing as farmers and their wives from the 1800's. And, although I'm all for women wearing the pants in their relationships, I can understand the allure of wearing a big poofy dress. I think the hula hoop would be a hoop skirt, but I'm not sure about that. Maybe she thinks farmers' wives stand in the corn and hula hoop while the men plow the fields. I can certainly see how a six year old would find that attractive.

Well, having neither a big poofy dress or a hula hoop, I convinced her that girls could be farmers too and that there are still farmers in the world and that they wear jeans. She considered this and asked if she could be a sheep. She wanted to stick cotton balls all over herself and was crestfallen when I suggested that may not work out very well because most of the cotton balls would probably pop off before she even got to school.

Then I had a Good Mommy Moment. "You know," I mused out loud "farmers spend a lot of time in the sun. Maybe I could draw some freckles on you with make-up!"

SOLD! We devised a plan. Rolled up jeans, red rain boots (because farms are muddy), a red shirt (because farmers wear red apparently), two piggy tails with red ribbons and of course, the make up freckles.

She looked so cute this morning when she headed out the door. I think she felt very farmer-ish. And I felt like a Very Good Mommy.