Fairy Tales Influence On Children

From very young ages we learn how to live. Many psychologists study this in the complex called “nature versus nurture”. Are our lives based on our genes and who we are biologically, or do we learn and grow with the help of those who surround us? There is no definite answer to this question. The closest answer to that question would be that we are a mixture of both. From our parents, to our siblings, teachers, and friends, alongside the influences of stories, songs, movies and videos, we are influenced by everything that goes on around us. Our brains begin to mold from very young ages. The reason why important messages are stressed so much when we are young is because our brains are young and will shape itself around the things we learn. This

Through the evaluation of moral and ethical undertones, it is evident that fairy tales positively and negatively affect the mindset of children.

Fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Snow White, have all become household stories. They started out as small tales to tell at night, and have turned into big businesses, with movies, tv shorts, soundtracks, even plays on Broadway. Each story has left us with a message that both consciously and subconsciously have left some long lasting mark on us. Whether that be through the plotline itself, or even through its imagery, fairy tales seem to have a great impact on us from our first interactions with the stories. However, that can be both good and bad. Many fairy tales seem to have similar storylines where a princess ends up being saved by a prince. When faced with a character who is supposed to be an inspiration, especially at a young age, all you want to do is be like them. What do we say to little girls who grow up thinking they have to wait for their ‘Prince

Developmental psychology researcher Saul McLeod talks about this in his research paper. “First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it perceives as similar to itself. Consequently, it is more likely to imitate behavior modeled by people of the same gender.” As stated before, up until very recent, many princesses in fairy tales tended to receive characteristics of being weak, vulnerable, and needing to be saved. A young girl may grow up believing that in order for her to be loved or for her to find love she must exhibit those traits. Moreover on the opposite side, young boys may grow up believing that they can not exhibit such emotions, because in those same fairy tales the prince was always seen as being brave or being a hero for saving the princess. These ideas portrayed in fairy tales will only keep us in the cycle that we are in now, where women are not seen as being equal to men, because women lack the strength, both physically and mentally, that men have. Fairy tales also tend to limit the emotions that humans feel. They often conclude with the princess and prince living happily ever after and that is it. It is understandable because they are catered to children, but because children are observational learners it is important that stories represent real life by not limiting emotions. Neuro-linguistic programmer Vanessa Loder addresses this in her journal. “The ability to recognize that we are