I woke up at midnight last night to my alarm. The alarm that I set. On purpose. All because I did not want to miss getting a place in my one-year-old son’s music class. I could not risk losing out on one of the few coveted spots in the next spring session.

If you have a young daughter, then whether you like it or not, you are smack-dab in the middle of the latest parenting controversy: whether its right to allow your little girl to pretend to be a princess. All you have to do is pick up the latest new-age book or log on to the blogosphere to see how heated this debate is. Some mothers criticize the very use of the word princess as a term of endearment, while others go so far as to ban the P word in their home. At the same time, just this year, grown women swooned at the sight of a real-life British Cinderella (Kate Middleton) marrying her handsome prince. So why the mixed messages? And when did this is this become such a royal issue?