The Firstborn’s latest passion is castles (and knights and crowns and kings and all those sorts of castle accessories). Yesterday, the Husband dropped by the library and picked up a castle-themed tote bag (I love our library!) filled with books, puppets and activity ideas.

One of those books was a retelling of The Princess and the Pea.

I’ve always been puzzled by that story. True nobility is measured by how a coddled woman who has (obviously) never done a good day’s honest work is unable to sleep well at night? (She’s probably not an accomplished rider, either, huh?). What makes a princess is that she has never been exposed to physical discomfort (and we are supposed to applaud that?)?

I’m sorry, but she seems like a useless ninny to me.

And why was she wandering around at night in the middle of the storm, anyway? Where were her legions of guards and maids to protect her from the harsh realities of life? I suspect some kind of sinister plot here (yeah, she’s stupid AND evil! *grin*).

Am I missing the deeper meaning of this story? Or is it really as superficial and shallow as I think it is?

What say you, gentle readers?