That is a wonderful story! yep, ya done good, Ma.

Have you read The Paper Bag Princess?

Lynn, reading this made my heart smile. I admire you so much.

Thank you for sharing this with us. 🥰

Lovely story, and it's a true one!

I'm glad you shared it with us. The teachers taking note and changing storylines themselves after that is wonderful hear. :)

Thank you. I just think that it’s so important to inspire young girls to feel confident and strong about themselves from the very beginning! I’m so proud that Emily is one of them!

What a lovely story!

Thank you so much for sharing that - it truly is inspirational 😃

Good for you, Lynn! I never

let my kids watch those ridiculous Disney princess movies either. Second City had a really funny set of sketches on Disney princesses in which Belle was portrayed as a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, Snow White with a narcissistic streak, etc —hilarious with a grain or two of truth.

Good job, Mama— It’s wonderful to find out that you’ve had a positive effect on someone’s life, isn’t it?

Again, thank you but, honestly, the most satisfying part was seeing Emily and some of her girfriends grow into strong girls and then strong women.

Bpath , I somehow missed that book. BUT, I just went to Amazon, read anout it and ordered it! I don’t have a granddaughter yet, but when I do, she’s getting that book! Thank you!

KSWL, yes it is! Those Second City spoofs hit home with some film makers I hope.

Jinx, thank you :~)

SeaSea: yes yes, it was!

Carol: thank you!

Maddielee: what a smart SIL, wow! And, yes, while we were talking about all of this today, Emily again told me about how traumatized she was after seeing both Dumbo and Bambi and friend’s houses. I feel for all the poor little kids who felt that way!

Nice. :)

One of the best Disney princess movies is the one that makes fun of Disney princess movies...don't remember the name but it has cockroaches instead of woodland creatures?

That's a moment to treasure, keep it in a safe place and bring it out whenever you have one of 'those' moments.

I just love this! You did good, Mama Lynn.

Thank you for sharing, Lynn....yes, you did good & I love that Emily stood up & "scolded" that K teacher!! We have a strong daughter, too....don't you justt love it? Ours is 5'tall only, but never underestimate her!!

I am so with you on this, Lynn. Brava to you, to Emily and to the teachers who wised up.

Not to say there is anything wrong with whatever storyline a parent wants to share, but one would hope at least there would be balance.

One movie that was so popular and drives me crazy is Pretty Woman. Romcom escapism can be harmless but she is a prostitute FGS!

This is the power of mothers. It's like what Maddielee shared on the Leslie Jordan thread about Jordan's mother's unconditional love and support, and how Randy Rainbow described the importance of his mother's support during his acceptance speech of the Matthew Shepard Foundation award.

This, of course, extends to fathers, teachers, caregivers of children, and anyone else who has the opportunity to influence a child's perception, as well as their self-esteem and awareness.

Thank you for sharing this, Lynn!

What a wonderful memory she shares with her teacher and it's great that you had the forethought to try to neutralize some of those stories. I do have to say, though, I LOVED all the princess stories, fairy tales when I was growing up, but never had any illusions that I needed a man for anything close to saving me. My mom was a widow who had to work very hard to support us, so I think learning by example is effective, too.
I believe it was for my 40th birthday that someone gave me this book. It's wonderful and enlightening and would make a good gift for women (not sure what age of kids, but I think there is one just for children). If she doesn't have it, maybe something she'd enjoy?
Feminist Fairy Tales

You must be very proud, Lynn. We were also intentional about providing books and movies with strong girl characters for our DD. I really like how you changed the storyliine for the princess-themed books!

And I am with you Mtn - never understood the Pretty Woman popularity then or now.

We call them feisty female characters.

Wonderful story, Lynn. I dug out some old Berenstain Bears books to read to my grandnieces. As I came to the end I had to make up an addendum. In the original story , Mama Bear just stands there wearing an apron watching Papa Bear and the kids having adventures and doing things like sledding downhill through a chicken yard. At the end of my version she jumps on a sled and whizzes past them all and the apron blew away.

So nice to read this. You have a very lucky daughter, Lynn!

When I was in first grade my mother gave me a dump truck for Christmas. It was battery operated, so the bed of the truck raised up....to dump. She told me I could be anything, a dump truck operaor if I wanted to be.

I'm having a bit of a problem with this thread but I didn't have daughters although I am one. I had two sons and never believed in sugar-coating or fudging the truth about anything. They got the actual endings of the fairytales and discussion followed about the story and ending and how valid it was or if it was realistic in today's world. They watched the 6:00 news with all of it's ugliness with us and discussion always followed regarding the headlines, disasters and always the business news.

And I don't measure my kids success's in their job titles. (I don't even understand what one of them does) They are happy and settled with a supportive partner who they in turn support. I get a big hug from them whenever I see them and a big hug with an "I love you" when they leave. And they take an interest in the world around them and beyond and so I'm a happy mom.

So nice for you Lynn - stories can be whatever you want them to be. I'm not sure it's a good idea to prevent kids from hearing difficult or unhappy endings though. I think learning to handle smaller difficulties and hard things early on, in a supportive family environment, helps prepare kids to effectively cope with bigger disappointments and hardships as they get older. It does seem that we have a generation of kids whose parents lovingly protected them from hardships and disappointments and I sometimes wonder if that contributes to the high rate of depression and suicide in young people these days. Those of you who have happy, well adjusted adult children are truly blessed.

@blfenton I think I get what you are saying. I would not edit a true story to protect the feelings of my children.

I would not mind changing a fairy tale to include an ending where the subject shows their own strength. My daughter and granddaughters loved the Disney Princesses and had the princess dress wardrobes to show it. But at the end of every Princess story they were also told that little girls grow up and can work to be whatever they wanted to be.

An example of what a Disney movie can do to a person 😊; Every dog I have ever owned, I first met in a Disney film. Our cocker spaniel and wirey mutt - Lady and the Tramp (I still don’t care for siamese cats because of the same movie). White poodle - I forget the movie. Our yellow lab - Old Yeller.

Everyone has different qualities they are proud of in their children. Young, bold, rude and self righteous isn't one of mine. (And I say that having lived with one!!!)

I wouldn’t edit a true story, but i would tweak a make believe story. All the old Berenstain Bear books are gone and replaced with updated versions now .

Yes, I see how a lesson could be learned by showing youngsters how things used to be once they are old enough to understand that.

My youngest will turn 40 this spring and I only vaguely remember how we handled fairy tales - other than reminding the kids that they were made up and that not every story has a happy ending.

Hopefully it's a little easier to find a balance in children's literature these days - but you still need to look for it. I'm not up on the current Disney characters so I wonder if they might be more empowered.

Now that I have 4 young grand daughters I discovered this site: A Mighty Girl which calls itself the world's largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident and courageous girls.

This is their list of 40 fairy tales.

https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10472

Check out the section "Best of..."

The book section is very broad and has over 4000 titles, arranged by age, category and interest.

Maire

Lynn, I, personally, love the part where your daughter speaks up. That would be me. My parents made up stories as we are a family of writers, artists, performers

and even millionaires. lol

My story is that I was very empowered as were my six siblings. BUT, when I went to kindergarten, the teacher gave us all one fat crayon and a piece of white paper. I asked how can we make a good drawing without color. She told me to be quiet, so, when she was not looking, I asked the boy next to me on that round table and asked if I could use his for a second. At least I had two colors. My Mom was told, by the teacher, that I was defiant. Here comes the Mother to protect her child. She listened to the teacher and, kindly said, this child is just doing what she does at home. I apologize for her as she is only four. Yep, we went to kindergarten at four years old. Yes, I became an artist and still work at it.

Lynn, what a wonderful thing you did to prepare your daughter for whatever life may hold for her.

Okay, this is really weird. I post on your thread yesterday. Today I went to read new posts after mine so tried to find mine to know where to start reading. It didn't appear. I didn't retype it, but just opened your thread on a different browser and see my post. So I went back to the browser that i couldn't see the post on and it's not there! So, apologies if this appears twice for people. I don't get why this would happen. I thought someone had flagged my post for some reason? Original post below:

What a wonderful memory she shares with her teacher and it's great that you had the forethought to try to neutralize some of those stories. I do have to say, though, I LOVED all the princess stories, fairy tales when I was growing up, but never had any illusions that I needed a man for anything close to saving me. My mom was a widow who had to work very hard to support us, so I think learning by example is effective, too.
I believe it was for my 40th birthday that someone gave me this book. It's wonderful and enlightening and would make a good gift for women (not sure what age of kids, but I think there is one just for children). If she doesn't have it, maybe something she'd enjoy?

Feminist Fairy Tales

What a great story, and a great mama! Good job! 🙌

Good for you! What a good Mama/teacher you are. I too limited movies from the D company for the same reason. I also did not like the anthropormation of animals. They are not in the forest singing and dancing and blissfully holding each others hands. A little bit of that goes a long way,