We took Kate on a little family adventure last Friday. While on our said outing, we saw a polar bear and a dinosaur among other things. The dinosaur was probably 4 times as tall as Kate, had many tall teeth, she'd never seen anything like it, and it would stand to reason that a tiny two year old should be intimidated by him since he stood outside the building thus making her think he was free to "get" her (her words). By contrast, the polar bear she saw after that didn't stand nearly as tall, didn't have nearly as many teeth, she's seen at least one of these stuffed life sized ones before and has a large stuffed animal one at home, and he was inside the building within a fence and clearly not living. You would think the dramatic opposition of the two situations would clearly leave her inclined to prefer the polar bear, but that thought would be 100% incorrect. She didn't want to get near the polar bear or talk about him in the slightest - all she could talk about was the dinosaur and getting to go back outside to see him again. She wouldn't smile, acted fearful, and started to cry when I tried to get her picture by the bear, but couldn't take her eyes off the dinosaur long enough to stay turned towards the camera while I was taking her picture outside because she was so excited to look at him. Even when we left the building in the dark as the floodlights shown up at the T-Rex (in my opinion making him seem even more scary and dangerous), she asked to go right up and touch it. What's wrong with this girl?!?
So where Coca-cola go wrong in their polar bear campaign? Didn't their focus groups tell the advertisers that dinosaurs are much more attractive and approachable to children than polar bears? Can't you just see the ad: a cute baby T Rex trying to figure out how to get a coke bottle to reach its mouth with its too short front arms while its momma stands behind it?!? Coke's decision to go with the polar bear as a mascot instead of the dinosaur to me confirms that my opinion sides with the majority of the WORLD... but right now Kate would undoubtedly be thrilled and want to start drinking coke if dinosaurs were on the ads instead.
Just like dipping her watermelon in mustard or choosing stale Halloween candy over fresh Christmas cookies for dessert, choosing the dinosaur over the polar bear is probably only the beginning of Kate's choices seeming irrational and/or illogical to me. But even though her preferences sometimes confuse me, it's fun to watch her become her own person - and at this stage in her life it's even more interesting to see her preferences because they are totally independent of societal pressures or norms.
For instance, I LOVE that right now she's in love with the color orange without the slightest concern over the fact girls "should" like pink or purple. I don't know if it's possible to accomplish this, but I'm going to try to find a way to show her how to keep loving orange even when she's old enough to know girls are supposed to like pink and most people in general don't enjoy that good ole orange hue. I've spent too much of my life worried about what I'm supposed to do and what I'm supposed to think - I don't want that sort of life for my girl. I want to strive to lay a solid enough overall foundation within her that she has the confidence, desire, and freedom to make her own successful choices even when those choices don't make sense to others... or even her mother. Thankfully I don't need to understand her to be proud of her, and I'm already so proud of Kate just for being who she is - she's compassionate, giving, funny, energetic, and so much more. I'm a lucky momma!
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