As a parent, I feel it is my duty to put forth the following question:  Have you read a [tag]fairytale[/tag] lately?  I’m talking “good ‘ol fashioned” Cinderella, Beauty & the Beast, Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood, to name but a few… You know, the stories we grew up on or are perhaps still in therapy for, to this day…

These classics have found their way onto children’s bookshelves for what seems like forever, but have you ever taken the time to actually read them?  Whoa?!  And people think that there’s too much violence on television nowadays?  Well, boy oh boy, someone need only to leaf through the pages of one of these twisted fables to see where bad influence truly lies.  Let me throw out a storyline or two and you can judge for yourself:

[tag]Cinderella[/tag] - Let’s see, her biological mother dies when she’s a child.  Her father then remarries and dies too, leaving her to be raised by her wicked stepmother and forced into a life of slavery.  So inspiring for young minds, wouldn’t you agree?

[tag]Beauty & the Beast[/tag] - Belle’s mother dies when she is a child, her father falls ill, she falls in love with a beast, who is wounded in a sword fight by a potential suitor. A crime of passion? Hmmm…death, sword fights, yup, that’s what I want my two-year old reading up on. Isn’t love wonderful?

[tag]Snow White[/tag] - She’s poisoned, falls into a coma and is cared for by a family of forest dwelling dwarfs.  What the….?! 

[tag]Little Red Riding Hood[/tag] - The grandmother is eaten up by a wolf.  Do I really need to say more?  Okay, we all have issues with our mother-in-laws, but come on people…  And I wonder why my daughter has bad dreams.

And don’t even get me started on poor little Hansel & Gretel subjected to cannibalism-motivated abuse, or poor follicular-endowed Rapunzel, trapped in that tower.

Or what about [tag]lullabyes[/tag]? 

Rockabye baby on the treetop

When the wind blows the cradle will rock

When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall

And down will come baby, cradle and all…

Oh yeah…that’s a comforting thought before you lay me down to sleep mommy.  Is this really what we should be singing to our babies?  Yes, sweetie, you see…first I’m going to hang you precariously from a tree branch, then I’m going to wait for it to shake, then I’ll watch you fall.  Goodnight!

Who wrote these damn things and what kind of childhood were they subjected to that these seem like acceptable practices, sing songs and storylines to write about?  All I can say, is that after reading these so-called classics myself, I have decided that they will no longer find their way onto my daughter’s storytime list.  Moms, Dads, it’s time to unite and banish these evil pages from the endtable. Please join me, won’t you?

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