dressing up is dead, here

I think it is Disney that killed dressing up.

As I can recall, dressing up once involved putting on old clothing. Scarves or anything with a flowing texture, old high-heeled shoes with leather so worn the shoes creased flat, bridesmaid dresses that had turned slightly yellow with stiff lace. Dressing up was completed by one very important element: the leap a girl's imagination had to make in order to turn a pile of dusty old clothes into a princess. Maybe this is the root of my self-esteem issues! Always imagining a princess but seeing crusty lace. How could I ever truly believe I was a princess with reality staring back from the full-length mirror in the hall? A Miss Havisham more like!

If the trade-off is having a daughter act like mine does these days - I will have the crusty lace back thank you. Gone are the days of needing a leap of imagination. These days, you want princess - you get princess. No mind-bending required. You can be any Disney princess - simply a step in and three velcro strips away from an exact replica of Sleeping Beauty. She doesn't have to dream of being a princess, she is one. And seriously, she puts that thing on and I realize that Disney's lame attempts to talk about how princesses are about kindness (blah blah) are completely lost on our little royal. She has the "Why am I subject to the poor service of such incompetent help?" mentality. Once the garb is donned, the only things she says are some variation of the following (you will have to imagine the shrill shrieking tone)
"Where is my crown?"
"Fix my pretty shoes!"
"My crown is falling off, not on right, pulling my hair, etc. Come fix it right this second!"

It is Anastasia and Drizella, not Cinderella - that passive, kind to animals, slave.

I think if you aren't wearing Sleeping Beauty's dress you don't really expect the scarves to fit the way you expect your pink jeweled tiara to fit.