To my darling daughter

To my darling daughter (30+ years from now),

I hope that you are well. I'm sure (and hope!) that you have done well for yourself. You probably have a lovely home high up in the mountains, or on a tropical island with an active volcano, or deep undersea with all the mysteries that reside there. Where ever your lair is, I'm sure that it's nice and your henchmen professional. I can only assume based on your almost four year old self this is the life that you chose for yourself. Almost 4yo you requires that everything is done Just So™, that you almost reflexively choose the opposite of what your parents suggest, and the role models you've chosen are Maleficent, The Evil Queen, the step sisters and mother from Cinderella, and Aurora. I'll leave it to the reader to figure out which one is not like the other.

We both love you, so much. For the first almost four years of your life you've been a child of extremes. Either super happy and playful or... not. And you are clever. Often times I find you far too clever for your age. To be honest, your mom and I are terrified for your teenage years. Hopefully we won't choose to call them The Dark Ages, but only you will be able to decide that.

Don't think that I'm calling you evil. I don't believe that for a moment. But the cleverness, the desire for everyone to do as you command, the ability to play independently so well for long periods, and your choice of role models does suggest a certain career path.

You'll find as you grow up that stories in books usually only show us one side. Our side (good) and the other (bad). But every story has many more sides to it. Bad people are never really bad... or at least didn't start to be that way. They've just made choices that we don't agree with. Means that we tell ourselves we wouldn't have taken. We are all a White Knight in our own story.

Having said all that, we wish you the best in your presumed quest of global domination. We love you very much. Always have, always will.

Your Dad.