Once upon a time, in a near land, very close to home, we had a tradition called bed time stories and fairy tales. There was Goldilocks and the three bears, Snow White and the seven dwarves, Rumplestilskin, , Red Riding hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel and many other stories. Have you ever sat down and thought what is this story teaching my child, what is the moral of this story. Here’s a quick summary:
Goldilocks and the three bears: Goldilocks breaks into the three bears home, invades their personal space, eats their food, breaks their chairs and sleeps in their beds. When she gets caught she runs away. What is the felony: Breaking and entering, stealing, getting away with it? Now there are wanted posters on all the trees, all over the woods with an identikit of Goldilocks that baby bear described to the police.
Snow white and the seven dwarves: Ever wondered why step mothers have this stigma attached to them. They have Cinderella and snow white to thank for this. Not only was the step mother performing jadoo/black magic on Snow white with poisonous apples, she was very jealous of her beauty she wanted to kill her. Snow white wasn’t the pure lily white miss sunshine she is portrayed to be. Shacking up with 7 short miners. That explains why Grumpy’s moods actually changed.He actually smiled!!
Rumplstilskin: Hard to say even harder to spell. She wanted a child, she promised him she would give him the child. She broke her promise. Who looks like the baddie in this story..
Red riding hood: Firstly why send a little one to go and deliver goods in a dangerous forest. Didn’t her mother teach her not to talk to strangers. Talking about big eyes. She definetly needs to get her eyes tested if she thought the wolf was her nanima.
Jack and the beanstalk: Magic beans, climbing up the beanstalk, stealing from the fee fi fo fum giant. Stealing his money, stealing his harp, stealing his chicken. When he catches him and wants his stuff back, he kills him by chopping the beanstalk off.
Elves and the shoemaker: Laziness, procrastination, child slavery.
Rapunzel, sleeping beauty, Cinderella, Snow White: If you ever saw damsels in distress, real drama queens, always looking for someone to save them from their horrid existences. Knight on the white horse in shining armour. Save me!!! Like the bollywood Indian movie heroines.. Bachaw.. Save me. Totally helpless.(Don’t get me started with Bollywood) I wonder if they ever lived happily ever after..

The only one I can say was a little realistic, warts, farts and all was Shrek.
Want to know where the morals have gone, why the crime is so high. Next time you are tucked in reading a book to the bichoo, ask yourself what is this story teaching them. What are we teaching the kids?

Tags: cinderella, fairy tales, Jack and the bean stalk, red riding hood, seven dwarves, shrek, snow white