Once Upon a Time
In the past few nights I’ve read to my child Hansel & Gretel, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Cinderella, Pinnocchio and Rumpelstiltskin, just to name a few. Of course, I know these stories have been polished up for a new generation of kids. Ever since Disney got in on things they’ve removed the goriest bits. Still, they are nothing like what you find in storybooks these days. Happy endings are not guaranteed; one boy is consumed by wolves for not listening. The adults are often out to get children in the form of witches or stepmothers. Kids shouldn’t go out in the woods, that’s where all the worst things seem to happen.
These stories didn’t hide their agenda: do what you’re told kids, or else.
As I read to him, I waited for the tap on the shoulder. Why mum, why would their stepmother want to abandon them in the woods? Why does the witch want to eat children? What will Rumpelstiltskin do with that baby?
None of those questions popped up. Instead, he told me that it really bothered him when people disobeyed the rules in stories. Hmm.
I remember my strong dislike for some Disney stories as a child. I don’t know why I craved something more. Maybe we need a spoonful of darkness, even as kids. Children are keen observers of the world around them. They pick up on what is not being said. I usually have the news playing in the kitchen as I make our meals and my son hears all the reports. We talk about war and cancer and natural disasters. It does not keep him awake at night. Maybe the stability he has at home makes that possible. People like to point it out regularly: children are resilient. I think they can be, when we give them the opportunity to think and make choices.
In the past, (heck, even right now in places around the world) kids couldn’t avoid death. War, public hangings, widespread disease and even the slaughter of animals on the family farm were part of the fabric of life. Fairy tales came from that time. Childhood wasn’t what it is in the here and now.
Oddly enough, when we want to point out that someone is out of touch, too idealistic, we say that they live in a fairy tale. Perhaps, the story lines are simpler and it’s easy enough to distinguish right from wrong, but other than that, the (old) world of fairy tales is not where I want to go on holiday.
