Explaining Marriage

I've been hearing Malia play "marriage" games with her dolls. She's got the King and Queen standing next to each other, along side a Princess and Prince Charming, and she tells me they are getting married.

What the...??!! She's not even three yet!!

I can only assume she's getting this from preschool since the stuff she watches on TV doesn't cover marriage (Dora, The Wonder Pets, Diego). It's a little weird hearing the M-word coming from her mouth. And when you see that she kind of gets the concept (pairing the King and Queen with each other) it takes the weirdness to a new level.

Today we read The Little Mermaid (again) for naptime. It was the longer version of TLM so we ended the story with the wedding scene.

Malia: "Why is the Little Mermaid on the boat and not with her Daddy in the water?"
hmmm... I can kind of see where this line of questioning is taking me. I need to tread cautiously.

Me: "Because she turned into a human now and she needs to live on land."
Malia: "Is she marrying Prince Eric?"

Me: "Yesss.... she is."
My spidey-sense is on alert. My instincts are honed after years of fielding Kael's questions. It tells me now that something is coming up.

Malia: "Where is she going to live?"
Oh-oh. Yellow alert! Yellow alert!

Me (very slowly): "She's going to live in the castle."
Notice how I answer her question but not really answer her question?

Malia (very tenaciously): "Is she going to live with Prince Eric?"
OH! And there's the zinger.

Me: "Yes. She's marrying Prince Eric so she's going to live with him in the castle."
She's not even three. I so not want this conversation with her.

Malia (with a very perplexed look on her face): "Why isn't she living with her Daddy? Why is she living with Eric? Why can't they live with Ariel's Daddy? Ariel's Daddy looks sad."

Ugh. How do I explain marriage and moving out and starting a family to a three year old? As far as I'm concerned, she's not dating until she's in college! I kind of miss the "All boys are bad" phase.