Fairy-tales – short, little stories of things that never existed – a wolf that could swallow and fit in his stomach a whole grandma and her granddaughter alive, a girl living in an isolated tower with meters long hair on which her beloved one climbs up, a snow-white-girl that is sheltered by seven dwarfs and so on. Now, when you are grown-up, how do you view fairy-tales – did they help you in your life?
And if you answered “No” to this question, don’t be much sure about it. Fairy tales, as strange as it seems, give a lot of practical knowledge to children, as they did to you, it is just that you don’t know it, because no one explained it to you. You just grew up with them, and maybe subconsciously used what you learned from them. For example, you learned that there are good and bad characters. Even more – you learned that good-hearted characters with pure souls eventually win a lot more than bad characters, working only for themselves. And if you are lucky, you maybe learned to recognize good and bad people on the criteria transmitted subconsciously exactly by fairy tales. Yes, they might be fairy, but in their core and principles, they are very, very close to reality, and give a very healthy ground for children to develop and become real, intelligent, kind-hearted creatures themselves. As psychologists might put it – fairy talesteach children to be emotionally intelligent.
That is why it is so much better to read your children fairy tales and develop their imagination and emotionality, that let them watch Hollywood movies that are way too easy to chew up and don’t require any creativity. I still read fairy-tales today – to my young daughter. And if you happen to be Bulgarian reading this English blog post, I can recommend you the child book series published by Svetoslav Kantardzhiev and his publishing house “New Media Group”. They are very well illustrated and would keep your child’s attention even if he or she reads them by themselves.
In conclusion, I want to tell you – no matter how intelligent, serious, realistic and grown up you are, never allow yourself the stupidity to not give soul food to your children and yourself – and fairy-tales are certainly one of the healthiest soul foods for children.