Fairy Tales: A Mom's Perspective

Once upon a time . . .

A fairy tale stirs within most of us the vision of childhood.  Images of a land filled with princesses, knights, dragons and castles fill our minds.  Here is where God had us build the Princess Parable stories.

Tomorrow is “Tell us a Fairy Tale” Day for our nation.  Yes, there is such a day! The founders of this day encourage us: “From classic Grimm tales to modern-day stories, this day is all about letting your imagination roam free. Read fairy tales to your kids, or just read them for fun!”

As a Christian, fairy tales hold both cautions and benefits for our children.  I am a mom of four who lives 20 minutes from Disneyland.  We are annual pass holders and enjoy “The Happiest Place on Earth” many days of the year.  So I am not anti-fairy tales, but I have come to grips with how I feel about them.  I hope my findings will be helpful for you.

As the author of the Princess Parables, I have wrestled within my own heart and mind about traditional fairy tales for my kids.  While most Grimm fairy tales are written for adult audiences, Disney took them and made them into childhood favorites.  I made up a list of pros and cons for our family just to keep me on the right track.

The “Good” in fairy tales

I love a good story, and fairy tales capture our imaginations.  First of all, most fairy tales are good literature.  Written with elegance and enchanting vocabulary, they stretch the minds of young readers.  Second, they encourage our children to dream and think beyond their day-to-day life.  Encrypted within the words, visions of lands faraway beckon our children to explore and grow.  They can face a ferocious beast, climb the sides of a castle or join a ship of pirates from their own home. Next, most fairy tales introduce a hero to our children that they relate to and look up to. Nothing makes me smile more than seeing a little girl dress up in a shimmering gown or a boy in a super hero costume.  Those kids see greatness in these heroes and want to be like them.  Lastly, some stories offer a setting where good is against evil. We can take our own Biblical examples and interface them with the storylines.  Teaching good always wins shines through fairy tales.

The “Bad” in fairy tales

Many parents tell me the problems with traditional fairy tales.  I agree we must be cautious when introducing our young ones to many of the stories.  I cringe when I hear parents tell me they had set their 3 year old down to watch Sleeping Beauty and their sweet girl has had nightmares ever since.  First, fairy tales have an abundance of evil characters who are “too evil” for a child’s young mind.  At the ages of 2-7, most children believe these characters are real and do not understand even if we tell them they are not.  Second, as a Christian, I struggle with the world of “magic”, but fairy tales are full of magical creatures, spells and witches.  So much conversation must be had with our children in this regard.  I don’t believe we can just ignore it and our children will be fine.  Next, most of the parental examples are questionable in most of the stories.  The heroes can encourage us to disobey our parents and follow our hearts.  This has not been the way I have raised my kids so I always want to address counterproductive influences.  Lastly, I haven’t agreed with the portrayal of women in most fairy tales.  While I believe women to be feminine, I don’t believe they just have to wait around for a prince. . I certainly believe some fairy tales encourage relationships much too soon. I also see the attention to physical beauty is accentuated where I want to inspire my children’s character instead.

Why do we love the Princess Parables?

So now you can see why God picked me to write the Princess Parables!!!  I love all that fairy tales offer; however, there are just a few bumps that need to be ironed out along the way!  God created all of us to be royalty.  I know each of us is a daughter or son of the King.  I think we took the best from fairy tales – developing imagination, giving them a good story and a hero to emulate – while leaving the “bad” out of our stories. I hope you will enjoy our stories, especially our new story, A Royal Easter Story.

Take some time today, snuggle with your kids and tell them a fairy tale.  After all, it is National Tell a Fairy Tale day!

They love to sit in our laps enjoying “happily forever after”!  Have fun!

~Jeanna Young

When Jeanna is not writing, speaking, event planning, or homeschooling, she can be found scrapbooking her life, redecorating her home, loving on her husband, planning fun events for her kids or eating healthy to stay cancer-free!

Jackie's Journey: Fairy Tales vs. Reality Part 2

My oldest and youngest princesses, Megan Joy and Catherine

“So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God”. Romans 14:12"

What is it about a little girl that screams “Princess” at us?

And how is it we visualize “Protective Knights with Honor” in our little boys?

Destined for royalty, our little princesses and knights are designed with

destiny and eternal purpose…

From their earliest memories, our little ones are swamped with a prince and princess stories that introduce them to an unreal world filled with wizardry and lacking strong moral themes with eternal values.  They are asked to define love and romance by standards that are not true to life representative of clearly defined biblical standards.  Our children are needlessly exposed to the illusion of love through the many Prince Charmings that are so readily available to our princess counterparts in most storylines; however, they are not exposed to the truth of genuine love.  Society has blurred the lines between love and lust.

They are caught in a quagmire of choices that offer them temporal values but not eternal ones.  Their personal identification with a fantasy character is deceiving on many levels because the charge to discern the good and evil is often obscured by wrong motives and intentions on the part of the “hero” in the story line.

Often the attitude of the leading characters is questionable and the continual interjection of clairvoyance and magical fantasy is confounding.  The child is left to choose between bad and really bad, instead of good and bad.  Neither choice is particularly clear, but the medium being used (book, film, animation…) is “thought-captivating” and attention binding.  Both of these goals are shortsighted and not fulfilling for the long term.

Living in a post-Christian era, we seek to carve out a more excellent and realistic milieu for our children…these little ones that are so literal and entrusted into our keeping for so short a time.  Christian parents are seeking an alternative to the present prince and princess culture trend in books and films presently available.  The reason: our worldview influences all areas of life and every exposure a child has (visual or auditory) is adding to their life experience and their worldview. 

Presently, how would you describe your child’s worldview?

Articulating a biblical worldview within our sphere of influence is what The Princess Parables Series is all about.  These books are written to strengthen the belief that God made our little princess special and designed her with destiny and purpose.

The innocent imagination of a small child is a book yet to be written.  When the exposure to truth is clouded and “synergized” with fantasy, the images of truth, hope, loyalty, joy, grace, charity and faith are but a few of the myriad of opportunities lost.

Jeanna , my co-author, and I have had the privilege of placing in your hands five real princesses that will delight your little girls and teach them a biblical parable they will fall in love with.  Our five young knights are being introduced in our Easter and Christmas Books coming soon!  Take a peek…

Jackie's Journey: Fairy Tales vs. Reality Part 1

Have you ever seen a REAL princess?

 Since the beginning of time there has been a battle of good against evil.  In our present day, we find our lives inundated with children’s books, novels, games, cartoons, T.V. programming and movies filled with magical fiction, romance, and fantasy with the all too predictable witchcraft theme and an evil, scary villain!  A point in fact is the new face of this fight found in the fairy-tale princess phenomenon.

The cry from the masses is met with a barrage of the supernatural and literary narratives brimming with dramatic imaginary story lines.  This particular genre with its fairy-like spirits in ethereal, heroic and monstrous forms is captivating to children, young people and adults alike.  Children are especially susceptible to its alluring charm because their worldview is literal, and this genre speaks to their inner understanding of spiritual reality.

In an earlier blog, “Character Marks the Life of a True Princess”, I talked about what a REAL princess looks like.  The mission of The Princess Parable Series is to introduce and encourage the disciplines necessary to step outside the fantasy and into the magical realism and authenticity of a loving and accepting God who teaches finding contentment in serving others, not in serving oneself.  Although written in fiction, each Princess story is based on fact.  It teaches a specific character quality in the name of its princess and takes the storyline from a Parable that was taught by the greatest teacher ever born.

All of us have spiritual needs (issues of pride, anger, rebellion, and selfishness, to name a few!) that are beyond ourselves, and we tend to try to fill the vacuum we feel with “make-believe”. We allow it to offer us a few moments of escape from the real battle (with good prevailing), if only momentarily.

Most of us acknowledge the struggle and know we are going to live somewhere forever, but have little understanding of the what, when, where, why and how.  The surge of fantasy-ridden books and films is an after-effect of this need and exposes a society, seemingly, without direction or defined purpose.

These five Princesses have been specifically created to put a functional tool into the hands of you, young mothers (urban, suburban, rural, stay-at-home, teen moms, single moms and married moms, grand-moms, aunts, and teachers) each with a different lifestyle, but all who share a similar desire to be the very best power of influence you can be! 

The passion to meet the need of every person desiring to cultivate what God has programmed into her “princess potential” has been a huge source of motivation for me. This passion allows each of us to nurture our little ones into genuine greatness.

As a grandmother, I carry a huge responsibility for the three princesses pictured above.  May I introduce you to Alexandra Grace, Megan Joy and Catherine? 

We, as women, have the power of influence, and God holds us accountable for representing Him and for our diligence in the success of these entrusted to us…our heritage.

What is your commitment to your heritage?

What steps of action are you implementing to see

your legacy live on

into the next generation?

Next Monday we will continue this challenge. Will you join me?