Fairy
Tales! More or no more??
In a whatsapp group a debate got me thinking. How
relevant are the fairy tales today and the thoughts expressed got me worried. 'Life
is not always good over evil' said one, 'Nothing magical exists, so why fool
the kids' said another, while still another proclaimed 'there is no Santa Claus,
so why not tell stories as they should be told'. I object, my lord, for I
firmly believe that the kids today are much smarter and are able to
differentiate between the real and the magical. Kids are not stupid as they
have the world available to them at the click of a button. From a very early
age, they are exposed to the world of games, stories and much more than we ever
were. They know where to draw the line much to our dismay and amazement and
from a very small age too.
Unlike us when we were kids, who believed that seeds
thrown in the ground grew a beanstalk to the sky above. Let's not kid ourselves
cause we did bury those seeds in the ground and water it with the hope to climb
up there and meet the Giant. Who can forget Hansel and Gretel being left behind
in the forest - but not to forget how smartly they found their way home by
leaving a trail behind. So what if the second time the trail of bread was eaten
by the birds and they landed at the witches house. The kids did escape with the
riches, did they not. Just goes to show
that every fairy tale has shown how resourceful and intelligent the kids
were. So what's not right or scary about
sharing these stories today. The story
about the Golden Goose that laid the golden egg taught me not to be greedy....The
3 Little Pigs building houses of straw, sticks and bricks taught me not to just
take whatever I find to build my life, or choose the easy way out, but to
explore what would be better. Not to forget my favourite one The Ugly Duckling
that became a swan, and you may ask why? As a kid, like many other girls, I never
thought I was beautiful but today when I look back, I realise it helped me
realise my potential slowly and surely to achieve a lot more important things
in life.
As kids, we all loved a fairy tale with a happily ever after,
so did I. I am sure the kids today too enjoy the good conquering over the evil
with magic even if it is not the wicked witch but Harry Potter. Imagination and
the magical world is not a thing of our times.
Everyone has imagination in varying degrees. Some kids imagine the worst
to fight like flying dragons while other kids just like fighting the animals in
the forest. Worrying whether the story is too scary or what is the take away or
that it is not true to life is just in our heads only. What matters is that most kids today are able to
understand it better and they are much more creative and fearless than we were
as kids. They never accept anything at face value and question everything. Visuals in the stories may have changed to
flying dragons, swords to depict those mythological or magical stories about
cultures around the world but the essence is the same. When we were kids, the
stories were told with pictures in the book and today the same stories are
repackaged cinematically for the kids today. Fairy tale children movies,
television shows or comics still tell the story of Snow White surprisingly for
the kids in a suitable format, while for the adults it is recreated as
"Snow White and the Huntsmen". It just proves that there is a merit to the
fairy tales and besides this just makes it that much easier for us to read to
our kids, does it not? They say the world is round and what is new today is old
tomorrow, so let's not dismiss off all of those stories that we grew up with.
They taught us about friendship, life and hope. Today kids are sceptical of
everything and they never stop questioning 'why'? so it is up to us to how spin
off the moral of the tale. Take it a step forward and ask them to invent their
own endings and be prepared to be surprised. Kids don't scare easily these days
and unlike us don't turn our heads away when a head is cut off with a sword. They
revel in the sword fights, the fire breathing dragons and ghostly figures in
the corridors and it is not just the boys, but the girls too. In this virtual
world of stories, computer games, it is still a good idea to let the kids dream
the unbelievable, create their own worlds of fantasy and fly the fantastic
world of magical where goodness still conquers the evil. As for us who grew up
with fairy tales when life was simple, use these as a way to share your
childhood stories to the kids.
