We proceeded toward the back of the store because I'm one of those women that carelessly strolls through literally every aisle of the store 100 times. We are almost through the whole store now, and by this point, I'm asking CJ to count to 10, name his facial features, and other things to keep him entertained. As we make our way down the diaper/wipes aisle, CJ begins to sing the infamous "Let It Go" and "Do You Want To Build a Snowman" from Frozen. After his five minute solo was over, an employee came around the corner chuckling and began to stare to my son. She said "That's odd, I expected that to be a little girl singing." After realizing the look of the disgust on my face, she began the distracting phrase, "He is so cute. How old is he?" Thinking this would calm me down and make me forget about what had just happened. Then the question she had been dying to ask finally came out of her mouth, "Does it bother you that he likes that movie since Frozen is a little girl movie?"
For a moment, I was thrown off by her question. I smiled and told her, "No, it's his favorite movie right now." And we kept going. But the more I got to thinking about her comment, the more the gears were turning in my mind.
Why is it such a big deal that my son is obsessed with Frozen? Am I worried that he will be less of a man if he watches it? NO! His love of sticks, dogs, cars, and all things dirty or sandy give me reassurance in knowing he is ALL BOY! Honestly his obsession with Frozen stems down to the fact that he loves "Snowman" aka Olaf, and the music. That's all he really cares about. I will admit, I let him watch Frozen right after J left for deployment and never imagined he would love it as much as he does.
But for this woman, all she saw was a boy singing "girlie" songs. And since when did we start gender labeling Disney movies? I would rather him watch Frozen a hundred, thousand times than some of the shows that are on television. I won't name any just for the fear of starting an all out war over what is and is not acceptable for children to watch.
That being said, I am seeing something in CJ that I hope never goes away. His love of music. He loves to play the guitar, or "song" as he refers to it and any other instrument that makes noise. An instrument can be anything to him: sticks, a paper towel roll, a plastic tub, or even pots and pans. But the part that I enjoy the most is his singing. Yeah sometimes it sounds just as bad as any other toddler solo, but the passion behind it is what I love. You can see it all over his face (and even in his hands as they are waving around). Maybe he will be a choir director??
Why should I crush that just because Frozen is a "girl" movie? And for the record, he has many songs in his repertoire. "Let It Go", "Do You Want To Build a Snowman", "Pickup, Pickup, Everybody Pickup", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Deep and Wide", "Zacchaeus" and many self composed pieces. The love he has for music now could be a seed that grows into a gift of music that is one day used for God's glory. I'm not about to rain on his parade just because someone thinks that Frozen is a movie intended for only girls. Yeah its not normal, but if he's happy then I'm happy. I'd much rather his love of music grow as opposed to his love of drawing! (See photo below.)
