Nothing makes you question the appropriateness of every thing you were exposed to as a child then having a child of your own. My favorite book collection when I was little was the Madeline series. When I found out I was having a baby girl, I immediately purchased about a half dozen of them on Amazon. When she was born, I picked one up at random to read to her. Not only was the rhyming questionable but there were mentions of both robbery and death. Huh. That doesn't seem right. Then I downloaded a CD of children's music to play while in the house. The first song came on— "Old MacDonald". Great. Then the second— "Mary Had A Little Lamb". Yay. And then the third— "Ate a Peanut". Do you know what happens in "Ate a Peanut"? THE KID DIES AND GOES TO HELL. How do you sing this song to a 6 month old? The woman that swallowed the fly? She died too. Even the guy in "Skip to My Lou" threatens my child he'll find a partner "prettier than you". And don't even get me started on the Disney movies. Snow White was poisoned. Cinderella was treated like a slave. The Sleeping Beauty was in a coma. Rapunzel was locked in a closet. You might as well turn on The Young and The Restless for your child's entertainment— there is WAY LESS DRAMA.
This disturbing trip down memory lane led me to the adorable and humorous take on "The Big Bad Wolf" by Geared For Imagination pictured above (he ATE Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother in case you forgot). They've changed his name to the more baby-friendly "The Crazy Cuddly Wolf
And not a half-eaten meemaw in sight.
Stephen Fry said something along the lines that it’s our responsibility to tell children scary stories. To frame their fears. They’re going to be frightened of something anyway so it might as well be a classic. But I don’t think he meant Mazzy’s age group.
Have you heard of Bruno Bettelheim book ‘The Uses of Enchantment’ ? He analyses famous fairy tales based on a Freudian approach… I had to read it when I was younger (and smarter) back in College and you never look at fairy tales the same way after that… a bit weird at times, I’m not gonna lie
You might as well go whole hog and read her Angela Carter’s bloody Chamber.
(What’s with me these days? I’m recommending books to everyone!)
Am totally buying this wolf w/ a cell phone! How cute. I think my my first Facebook baby post was “WTF, I just realized that Rock a Bye Baby is about a baby falling out of a tree and dying!” Then all my friends weighed in with comments like, And ring around the rosie is about kids dying from the plague. “Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down.” Snappy.
What about that poor old woman that cries by her cupboard because she didn’t have any food?
Where is meals on wheels when you need it?
That’s what Dr. B (my sister) says. Teaching a child fear through stories is a way to introduce the emotion under a controlled environment and help them to learn how to process the feeling before it comes up in real life.
(She would be so proud of me that I was just able to spew that out!)
Yes, when you look at there aren’t that many children songs that are wholesome,cute and sweet….
So what we’re saying here is kids: scare ’em. It’ll be good for them. They don’t tell you this stuff in parenting books.
I totally understand what you’re telling. All those stories have a bad side still the end is “And they happily lived ever after”.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDNMuA795U It explains life is stuff and we must come out of it. The toys look cute.
I think one of the worse ones I’ve heard is Goosey Goosey Gander. An old man gets grabbed by the leg and thrown down a flight of stairs. Who writes these things anyway?