Role models. Changes. Washing up.

Keira Knightley and others, some of who have played princesses in Disney films or been on the soundtrack of them at least, are railing against those very films because of the poor example it shows to little girls. We should not be reading stories, or watching films, in which a princess has to be rescued by a dashing prince. Nor should we see a sleeping princess kissed, without her permission of course, by a handsome prince in order for her to wake up.

Well, okay, I can see where they are coming from but I have known some very independent-minded little girls who thoroughly enjoy dressing up as princesses and singing the songs from Frozen. Mind you, I have also known a fair few little boys who also wanted to dress up in flowing scarves.

My middle granddaughter pointed out that the original Snow White suffered more than just a kiss while asleep. She has been looking at fairy tales in her Drama class at high school. Rape and childbirth were involved as well. Those fairy tales that were never intended for small children were really rather grim!

But should we actually stop telling little children about Cinderella and Rapunzel and all the other fairy story girls? Maybe instead we should discuss the ideas with the children and then seek out other stories to counteract the message. I have found stories about princesses who refuse to conform and insist on going out befriending dragons, even after marrying the prince, handsome or not!

We need to be careful not to throw away too much heritage.

Speaking of which, Kendal’s on Deansgate is going to close at the end of January. There goes another Manchester landmark. It will leave a huge gap on one of manchester’s main streets. When the big store at the end of Market Street, Lewis’s,  closed - how long ago now? - it morphed into Primark. Somehow I don’t see another bargain store taking the place of Kendal’s with its snooty doormen and its air of being much superior to all its customers. The location is all wrong anyway.

A Saturday Guardian feature involves a question to which people offer answers. This weekend’s question is about the best way to load a dishwasher. For example, should cutlery go in pointing up or down? This led to stories about people being killed leaning into or falling into dishwashers in which sharp,knives were stacked pointing upwards. How do you fall into a dishwasher? Not having experience of one, I would not know.

Some suggestions:-

•  Take turns. 
• The only way to load a dishwasher is by two people with strongly opposing views. Loader also unloads. 
• When it’s not your turn, don’t look. 
• Wash the dishes yourselves. Maybe then you will find time to talk about real issues in your relationship. 

(We do our own dishes - as I said, no dishwasher - and put on some good old golden-oldies washing up music. The drier gets to dance as well!)

• I told my partner that if he didn’t like the way I packed the dishwasher he was welcome to do it himself ... and he has, ever since. 
• Wait until one’s partner has loaded it, then quickly sneak in and do it properly. 
• Like the right way to hang out the washing. 

The last two bring to mind a friend of mine who is even more obsessive than I am about the “correct” way to hang washing. If someone “pegs out” for her, she has been known to go out into the garden and “re-peg” to her own high standards!

It’s all about doin things the right way!