"The illusions of childhood are necessary experiences: a child should not be denied a balloon because an adult knows that sooner or later it will burst."
Marcelene Cox
My mom gave me a box of our old Disney books a few months ago and Pip was instantly drawn to Cinderella. I was reluctant to read it to her. I mean, isn't there an official 'complex' named after Cinderella? I wasn't about to plant the 'handsome prince equals happily-ever-after' seed in my daughter's head. Pip was persistent though. Despite my efforts to hide the book at the bottom of the box, Cinderella kept making her way back into Pip's little hands. (And let's face it, Pip certainly wasn't ready to discover the fate of poor Bambi's mother!)
I watched Pip carefully throughout the reading of the book. Did she admire the prince? Was she afraid of the stepsisters? Did she notice the flawed logic in the post-midnight existence of the glass slippers??? Hard to tell. It was snack time.
Pip, Crazybaby & I sat down at the girls' little wooden table to enjoy a feast of sliced apple with cheddar cheese. After several delightful fruit and dairy combinations, Pip stopped chewing long enough to announce, "Mama, we're living happily-ever-after." There was no gown, no prince, no fairy-godmother; just the three of us with our apple and cheese. Hooray for Pip!!!
"Yes we are," said I, and suddenly the whole happily-ever-after concept seemed just fine.
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Thank you for your feedback, Mamas! I received some personal emails about my blog this morning and it seems that people are having trouble posting comments and subscribing by email, so I"m going to give it a go. Posting seems easy enough, and there's a little 'subscribe my email' section right below this box.
ReplyDeleteI see no "Subscribe my email" section but it's late round here....anything's possible. I'll keep searching...
ReplyDeleteBTW, loved your blog tonight - you make "analysis paralysis" sound perfectly acceptable and empowering.
Hi Karen, I had my own fairytale moment with Josh. Two years ago we watched Snow White together while Daddy was at practice. Two things happened after we watched this movie (the cartoon version), one good and one bad. The bad one was that he started having bad dreams about forrests and wouldn't go near one at all. This made me sad, because I didn't realise that a forrest could have such an affect. But the second was quite a good one. It was this movie that I used to introduce to him that I was his "stepmom" a term that I was not sure he had ever heard before. I must admit, it wasn't the best movie of a stepmom being a "good" person as she is the person that is trying to kill snow white... But the comment that came from him at 4.5 years of age was "but you would never hurt me would you Penny?". It made melt. I guess as sad and complex some of these fairytales may be, they do teach us some valuable lessons and it is amazing what kids find within them to believe in...
ReplyDeleteJosh couldn't ask for a more wonderful Stepmom Penny.
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