You were doing fine until you suggest that boys should be allowed to dress up as Disney princesses. Children need adult direction, and not everything a child wants to do is good for his mental or physical well-being. A boy is going to have to be a man one day, and he will need to have developed the masculine virtues. Saying no to the princess idea is one way of telling him that not every whim he has will be satisfied. For that matter a 6-year-old girl should have very little to say about what sort of birthday party she is going to have. One of the reasons the current generation of young adults have so much need for psychological counseling in college is that their parents did not set firm but reasonable expectations for them when they were younger.