Don’t be a grandparent who changes the ‘inappropriate’ plot of classic fairy tales

Albert Einstein once said, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

If you curb natural imagination in children and take away all the natural secrets of being human, you are taking away from children the right to explore and find out for themselves the very things we explored, and what made us responsible adults.

How many children have said of their favourite fairy story, “Read it again” over and over, until they know the story by heart?

Fairy tales are historical stories. Stories mothers and grandmothers told their daughters to help them learn to protect themselves. Most fairy tales were hand-me-down verbal stories for young men and women and watered down for younger children long before people learned to read and write. They were a gradual introduction to growing up and adult life. Nothing sexual in it. Well, for girls it was to teach them to be aware of the big bad wolf.

Little Red Riding Hood was made into an adult movie — The Company of Wolves. The film is a horror story, where a teenage girl is stalked by wolves in a disturbing dream. The Company of Wolves is a 1984 British Gothic fantasy-horror film.

This story is remade again under the title of Little Red Riding Hood in 2015, and is another horror version. However, children knowing their version of the story would be clamouring to see because of the title. This is why parents need to keep up with the changing face of fairy tales, to ensure their children do not see inappropriate movies not applicable to their age.

These movies (and others) were based on The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault. It’s certainly not a collection one would want to read to young children before they go to bed at night. BlueBeard was a killer of women, Puss in Boots a trickster, and the fairies were manipulative and jealous.

The Grimms Brothers stories on the other hand were simple, easy to red and generally acceptable for young children, and Hans Christain Andersen’s stories varied between those for the very young and those who are more mature. Then there were the books the church deemed inapropriate, burning wise women/medicine women ‘witches’ at the stake or drowning them in chains because they taught fairy tales.

It’s strange how these stories managed to go through history, until now, without being detrimental to children. These stories never hurt anyone in the past, why would they damage children now? And, even if they are gender specific what’s wrong with letting children learn, and have discussions about things parents might find offensive? How will they learn to get out of difficult situations?

Parents are supposed to guide their children through their development; children need to learn to make their own decisions regarding history, and regarding their own future. Some parents allow their children to see inappropriate shows and ads; they don’t vet their television viewing. I’m not sure how many 5- to 9-year-old children need to know about body functions as advertised on daytime TV.

It would be interesting to know the statistics of how many children who played with guns grew up to be murderers, or how many children really continue to dream of being superheroes as their perceptions of life change. How can children develop to become responsible citizens if they are deprived of the very skills we developed through fairy stories and imaginative play?

What a pity to deprive children of history that has survived the centuries.

What games did you play as a child? Do you think children today are being robbed of their innocence?

Go in the draw to win some great prizes with Starts at 60. Simply sign up as a contributor and submit your stories to Starts at 60 here. You can also join the Starts at 60 Bloggers Club on Facebook to talk to other writers in the Starts at 60 community and learn more about how to write for Starts at 60.