Some Parents Forbid Fairytales. Would You?

Remember those old-school bedtime stories, like Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears? Today some parents are skipping them because they think they’re too frightening for their kids. According to BBC News, 2,000 UK parents were surveyed and about half of the parents said they wouldn’t read Rumplestiltskin because it features kidnapping and execution, Goldilocks and The Three Bears because it’s got theft and Little Red Riding Hood because it has abduction in it. We know some parent mights be skeptical about introducing fairy tales to their kids because of gender stereotypes, too.

Children’s author Diane Purkiss told BBC News that in the past fairy tales were told by adults to other adults in William Shakespeare’s time and it only shifted to a children’s genre in the Victorian age. She thinks it is making a shift back. But other parents are still sharing the classic tales with their children and are not too concerned about the “scary” aspects.

Are you reading fairy tales to your kids? Why do you think they would/wouldn’t be harmful?

Plus, more from The Bump:

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Is It Too Early to Start Teaching My Child to Read?

-- Sarah Yang

See More: Baby Basics , Parenting Styles