drawing the line

For her birthday, E got not one but TWO Ariel dolls. The first one was the slightly creepy talking one from Nonna and Pop-pop that has been her constant companion pretty much since she opened it. Slightly creepy talking Ariel accompanies E to bed most nights and even comes to school with her in the morning. Since toys are not allowed in school, E buckles Ariel into her carseat, where she proceeds to freak me out every time I go to the car because she's creepy and is staring at me.

The second Ariel doll is actually a Barbie version of Ariel. Yep. Barbie and Ariel, together at last! A small piece of my feminist heart has died. E had destined Barbie Ariel to a lifetime as a bath toy until A decided to rescue it.

"Pincess A-ee-ul!" A said one night at bedtime.

She walked into the bathroom and returned with Barbie Ariel and insisted that she join the ever-expanding bedtime posse of Blankie, Taggie and Horsie (a stuffed pink horse that was also stolen from E). However, despite my misgivings that Barbie Ariel would poke A's eye out in the middle of the night, the new sleeping arrangement has been pretty successful.

Last night, A and E were playing with their respective Ariel's in A's room. When it was time to round up the posses for stories and songs, Barbie Ariel was naked. I shouldn't have been suprised...every creepy baby in the house is naked. However, the creepy babies have the cloth bodies that look like some sort of modest undergarment, whereas Ariel Barbie is just naked...with boobs.

It took John and I few minutes to get the mermaid bottom and bra top back onto Ariel Barbie (seriously...could it be any more skin tight!?) but I'm happy to say that she was fully clothed at bedtime and this morning when A woke up.

So there you have it. The proverbial line in the sand in the Slacker house:

Naked creepy babies? A-OK.
Naked Barbies? Not so much.

No one said parenting decisions would be easy.