Living vicariously through your children...right or wrong?

Now, I will be the first one to say (not speaking from experience) that living vicariously through your children seems like it could put a lot of pressure on them. That is if you are wanting them to become the doctor that you didn't become or to make the grades that you didn't make, etc.. I mean, life is short! Let kids be kids!!! Face it, forcing your unfulfilled dreams to be their burdens might give them an expensive seat on the therapy couch. BUT...What if...that vicariousness is something FUN!?! Does that make it any better??

Growing up, I dressed up and went Trick-or-Treating ONE time! The one time that I went I was a Pound Puppy. Oh yeah, hair in pig-tails for ears and all. My family just didn't do the Halloween thing. Why? I'm really not sure. Maybe my Mom can jog my memory. I'm not bitter, it just wasn't how things happened in our household. So...now that we have a daughter I want Halloween to be something she gets into and has fun with IF she wants to. Doing FUN things for holidays that I didn't do growing up is how I am choosing to live vicariously through my Bunny. At least it is a little less stressful than being expected to make nothing less than 100's or going to Harvard. Until the day she can tell me she wants to or not, AND as long as we can come up with a "happy" costume we will dress her up for Halloween.

I do NOT want Bunny to dress up as a demon or anything like that. I wouldn't allow that. After all it will be OUR money that purchases the costumes. Not to open a can of worms but the old (please add the whiny parent voice and shrugging shoulders as you read) "Well....I really didn't want to get that for him/her but that is what he/she wanted." excuse is just that...AN EXCUSE! HELLO...YOU ARE THE ONE BUYING IT!!!! I am not just referring to costumes here. More so the clothes that kids wear but costumes are definitely included. Anybody hearing me on that!?! Okay, please excuse me as I pause to step down from my soap box and continue.

So, right or wrong and wanting to live vicariously through my daughter when it comes to dressing up, I chose a Ballerina for our Bunny to be for Halloween. This little Ballerina danced her way, gracefully I might add, through the annual Hill's Halloween party!

And boy did she make an entrance from stage left! The above pictures were the first of many we got after being there for just two minutes! Who knew that late afternoon nap would come in SO handy! She is definitely working it! She even found time to pose for a picture with her parents between scenes!

After a brief intermission, the prima donna ballerina was summoned to go on with the show...

She loved being in the lights...not the spot light so much...the string of lights. Here she is in the spider web with Daddy Dearest. She was mesmerized by this! Of course she wanted those little lights IN her mouth. Not so sure how the Christmas lights will fair on the tree. : )

For the finale, Bunny gave her two favorite audience members (Daddy and I of course) a private encore performance in which she was trying so hard to make a leap that she was sticking her tongue out.

She tried but was too tired to do anything else but eat and go to sleep dreaming of her performance. As did this Mommy whose dreams of being a ballerina came true if only for ONE glorious night of living vicariously (right or wrong) through this precious Ballerina dancing gracefully through her heart. I don't know if I will be able to stand it when she starts tap dancing her way through this heart of mine. I think that is known as the teenage years. We have a while before we are ready for that.