Many of us grew up on the classic Grimms Fairy Tells and such… complete with ‘realistic’ violence.
However, when it came to raising our own children… the books that were available were sanitized versions ni which all of the characters lived ‘politely ever after.’
Recently, I had the opportunity to read our local paper written by Jill Kelley of Cox News Service. She somewhat lamented how ‘fairy tales have changed.” I couldn’t help but wonder whether her revelation occurred before or after her son ‘gasped’ as he watched a PBS show in which someone called someone else ‘stupid.”
Now, I am not ready to drag children through the grimey and violent world that life can be… but we must recognize that understanding that some bad things in the world exist is not at all a bad thing. Most of the problems in the world — seem to me — to be caused by peoples inability to see what is unfolding before their eyes… not because some people see things that don’t exist. Reality is sometimes stares us in the face… and children should be exposed to life incrementally.
I was fairly disgusted with what I read in the bookstores… so much of it was soooo nice… so I embraced the challenge by writing a series of ‘action adventures’ of a favorite animal friend of my daughter Kristin… ‘the silly green alligator.’ I won’t bore you with the details… let’s just say that the alligator did what alligators like to do… eat things… and Kristi ( as I called her then) would be the heroine and ‘rescue’ her cute animal buddies… often violently.
Some people say that this is why she went to West Point, became a combat engineer and likes to play with explosives…. but I say that it is pure coincidence.
I did ensure that my young ladies experienced all the masculine joys of cooking, sewing, cleaning house… as well as the typically feminine activities, such as, martial arts, violent video games, computers, climbing on roofs to watch the stars, football fandom and ‘action’ movies.
My daughters see the world for what it is… not a perfect place, but a place where they can make their own heaven or a hell…. one brick at a time. It starts by seeing the world honestly…..
Roger Freberg