Sanity or Patience: choose one.

Do you ever have one of those moments where you think, "HA! I am sane!" Then you step in dog poo with your bare feet and remember it was your idea to get the puppy...?

Sunday, July 12

I always wanted to be a princess

Cinderella, in particular. I can remember listening to the book on record (yes the vinyl type) because, as my mother says, she was sick of reading it a bazillion times a day. I remember changing from old, ripped dressed and brown ballet slippers into my mom's old wedding dress and white patent leather shoes that were the closest I had to glass slippers... and telling my sister she couldn't be Cinderella. C'mon, what was she thinking? I was the only Cinderella!

Tonight, we watched one of Monsoon's favorite Disney flicks. Bolt. I watched him laugh, mimic, and cheer with excitement at every action scene, the same enthusiasm I used to have when I'd dance and sing along to "A dream is a wish your heart makes... la-da-da-da..."

The thing is, there are supposed to be morals to these children's stories. Okay, there are morals, but they're hidden. The whole "work hard, be friendly and have small feet so that someday Prince Charming will magically bring you fabulous shoes" moral? I totally only EVER thought about the Prince Charming and fabulous shoes part. When it comes to personality disorders issues traits,
Gregory Maguire might have written a book about me.

So I wonder, is my son going to end up with similar afflictions? Will he ram his head through steel bars (you know he already did this, right?) or start fights with cats for no good reason, or even jump from a bridge onto a train because the hamster agreed that it's a good idea? All the while neglecting the secret message about avoiding strange men and practicing imaginary superpowers? Might he not even fear Styrofoam?

If Disney can't do it, how are we supposed to instill those all-important values in our kids?

12 comments:

Julia said...

Call me a radical nut case psycho but I say eliminate Disney. Diego and Dora are really pushing save the animals these days. And Bob the Builder does pretty good too.

With my size 12 womens feet I had to learn pretty early that those glass slippers were never going to fit on my gorilla feet.

There's one more problem for me...I don't have a wedding dress so what the heck is Ella going to play pretend wedding in???

Amy said...

I wanted to be Snow White. With all of those crazy little men running around. I loved Bolt is was way cute.

Kathy B! said...

I agree with Julia. Ignore Disney. I think the positive message gets too lost in the shoes and the dress and the man. As the mom of four girls I prefer something with more, um, GIRL POWER :)

Jennifer said...

Cinderella totally is/was my total favorite. For our first date my husband and I went to see it.... way back when it was re-released. It was perfection.

Carma Sez said...

Oh, I really hope there is NO train jumping in his future! I was one of those who had the Peanuts lunchbox while my sister had the Princess one. I always carried a joke book around while she was collecting Princess Diana stuff....

Grand Pooba said...

Okay wait, I thought the moral of Cinderella was don't stay out after midnight.

Crap, I totally don't have small feet.

Michelle said...

Oh I so miss my little record player (ding) that had all the fun stories (ding) that told me when to turn the page (ding). My favorite though, was Daniel Boone (ding). Weird, no?

Hyacynth said...

I can't even get the toddler to look sideways at the TV for more than five seconds, so I pretty much knew Disney would not be helping me instill life lessons ... books on the other hand have been priceless. There is a page in his Bible about being God's big helper that has made a bigger impact on him than I ever could have imagined.
I know, though; the toddler is a freak of our common culture not lovin' the TV.
You kinda look like Cinderella, btw.

Hyacynth said...

I can't even get the toddler to look sideways at the TV for more than five seconds, so I pretty much knew Disney would not be helping me instill life lessons ... books on the other hand have been priceless. There is a page in his Bible about being God's big helper that has made a bigger impact on him than I ever could have imagined.
I know, though; the toddler is a freak of our common culture not lovin' the TV.
You kinda look like Cinderella, btw.

Anonymous said...

Lol.



Yeah, a lot parents today don't let their children watch Disney because of it's outrageous morals.

Debbie said...

Unlike Disney, we're here for the betterment of our kids, not to make money:) I think we can do it!

Christy said...

I think we can do it - and I sort of just treat movies as entertainment - no morals, etc - just entertainment. So far anyway - my daughter is only 11 months old so I'm pretty much talking out my arse! ha!