Fairy tales constitute a huge part during childhood. When you think about fairy tales and you close your eyes, you can literally hear someone chirping off “Once upon a time…”. From Little Red Riding Hood to Cinderella, fairy tales are like a treat for children. These days parents prefer forgoing providing their children with the entire experience of a fairy tale.
What the research says
Studies have shown that one out of five parents decide to restrain from reading fairy tales to their children. There have been reports from around one thrid of parents all over the world that after reading Little Red Riding Hood, their children cried for days due to the grusome scene of the grandmother being eaten by a wolf.
So the question is, are these stories too scray for children? Well, there are a fraction of parents all over the world who belive that these fairy tales teach the wrong values to children apart from being scary as well. A survey of 2000 adults was launched in order to mark the opening of the new US drama called GRIMM which consists of episodes based on fairy tales.
According to the poll, one quarter of the parents would not even consider reading fairy tales to their children before they reaches 5 years of age. When asked why most of them answered by saying that their child would ask awkward questions which they wanted to avoid. According to 52 per cent of the surveyors Cinderella did not set a good example for children as they portrayed a young girl who was forced to do house work.
One third of parents also agreed that telling their children about the Gingerbread man was out of limits since a fox eats him up. Finally around 35 percent of the parents try to avoid any sort of stories which are bound to give their children nightmares. Half of the parents agreed that the traditional books such as The Hungry Caterpillar, The Gruffalo and also Mr Men books projected a stronger moral message than the more modern counterparts. Here we list down the top few fairy tales which parents no longer read to their children.
Fairy tales ditched by parents
Jack and The Beanstalk: Parents think that this book is extremely unrealistic and the children start getting the wrong ideas from it.
Hansel and Gretel: The book features two children getting abandoned in the forest and then finding their way home. The entire topic of abandonment is very likely to scare the children.
Little Red Riding Hood: Parent find it horrifying explaining to their children why Red Riding Hood’s grandmother is eaten by a wolf.
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs: Parents found the dwarf word to be extremely inappropriate.
Gingerbread Man: Explaining to children how the ginger bread man gets eaten up is very hard for the parents.
Cinderella: The story is based on a young girl who is reduced to doing household works by force which sets a bad example for children.
