Pratt borrows the voice and furniture of fairy tales to talk about the impossible expectations mothers can place on their daughters. The opening "Once upon a time" is quickly undercut: it "isn't easy / to please mothers." What follows is a list of contradictory demands. Be beautiful, but strangely so. Have a PhD, or stay home with the children, or somehow both. Marry the prince, not the woodcutter or the princess you love. The echoes of Cinderella, with the ugly sisters and the shoe, make these demands feel both absurd and familiar.
The speaker sounds weary and wry rather than openly furious. The humour is dry, but it turns darker in the last stanza. Crowns require cutting off your hair, and shoes require cutting off heels and toes. The image is gruesome, and it suggests that pleasing others means mutilating yourself. The mood ends up sharp and bitter, with a quiet ache underneath.