MEComposing

My colleagues and I were all getting awed by a fellow's preparations for her daughter's 7th birthday. This birthday is princess-themed, 5 months in the making, where the girls will be wearing princess costumes and there'd be 7 roses, 7 lollipops, whatever.

The works! (meaning, it's like a debut)

Maybe because am not a mother yet... but I question the impact of such a celebration to the psyche of a little girl... bad, but I wanted to ask if the girl is on the honor roll, is very well-behaved...in short, has she done anything at all to warrant the pomp and expense?

Then again, am a believer in celebrating birthdays... and woe to the child that didn't have a 1st, 7th, 13th, 18th/21st birthday party.

Still, I cannot help but feel that a trip to HK Disneyland would have been a betetr celebration of a girl's childhood.

(I know I bent over backwards just to throw Ela a birthday party when she turned 7, but that was very much a children's party... with clowns and games and food. Plus, she was 2nd in her class. And it's her first ever party.)

Anyway, there we were, conflicted with this growing trend among girls/mothers... and got started talking about our own 'princess/beauty queen moments' while growing up.

I was never a flower girl... but I was a bridesmaid twice to an uncle and a cousin. I was never 'Miss Anything' and the one time I wore a gown to parade on the streets, it was the end of the Flores de Mayo in Lipa (where just anybody can show up in a gown or a barong and parade, unlike in Santacruzan where you get wooed to join, either because you're pretty or because your parents donated some money to the town fiesta). I wore a garrishly gold gown then. Arggh...

Good thing I looked great in the pictures.

The next time I was slated to go parading again, it rained...and I didn't want to ruin the uber white gown I just had dry cleaned. Ahehe...

So my colleagues shared stories of their own, and of their daughters... how they annoyed the procession one time because the little girl rode a sidecar while those behind her were riding tricycles and owners... how someone fainted in the middle of the procession out of hunger... how nobody was lighting them as they walked several streets...

One of my colleagues even had ready pics to show... black and white and her just 4 years old.

So then we moved on to the type of gowns our mothers used to have us wear... frilly, overlapping sheaths that make you itch... lace and ribbons and ruffles...high collar Sunday dresses... empire-cut gowns... layers and layers of tulle and organza... sequined bodice...

And do you remember walking around with your mouth half-open...either careful not to ruin your lipstick... or just yucked out by the taste of lipsticks in the old days?

And how... most of our generation had to suffer from having their hair curled (even those with already curly/isponghado hair)... something that seemed to have stopped around the time my sister was growing up.

And of course, that reminded us of spray net and teased hair... not just the bangs, mind you, but also the sides (ala cobra... nyahahaha)... with men also having their bangs curled (ah, back then, Michael Jackson was still cool)...

And wearing your hair in braids all morning... so that by the time you strut around the neighborhood in the afternoon, your hair will be all zigzaggy (ala Ruffa Gutierrez)...

And oh my, the padded blouses (thankfully, I owned only one)...

*Ouch*

And then we wondered why parents take pictures of their kids bathing or just plain naked.

Wonder what i'd do to make my kids' childhood as 'memorable'...

Bwahahahahaha...