Fairytales too scary for modern children, say parents
Traditional fairytales are being ditched by parents because they are too scary for their young children, a study found.
Research revealed one in five parents has scrapped old classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Rapunzel in favour of more modern books.
One third of parents said their children have been left in tears after hearing the gruesome details of Little Red Riding Hood.
And nearly half of mothers and fathers refuse to read Rumplestiltskin to their kids as the themes of the story are kidnapping and execution.
And 52 per cent of the parents said Cinderella didn’t send a good message to their children as it portrays a young woman doing housework all day.
Steve Hornsey, General Manager, Watch, said: ”Bedtime stories are supposed to soothe children and send them off to sleep soundly.
Tfirst series of Dynamo: Magician Impossible was the highest-rating new Pay TV series of 2011 and a breakout hit for Watch, delivering huge TV ratings peaking at 1.9m viewers, but also generating a huge amount of Twitter and Facebook traffic. Influential Twitter fans including Stephen Fry and Matt Lucas helped to secure Dynamo: Magician Impossible over 52,000 mentions on Twitter and almost 250,000 Facebook fans.
This year UKTV has signed an exclusive talent deal with Dynamo for Watch. Phil McIntrye Television and Inner Circle Films will co-produce the two 4 x60’series, which has been commissioned by Commissioning Editor, Richard Watsham and Director of Commissioning, Jane Rogerson, and ordered by Watch’s General Manager, Steve Hornsey.
”But as we see in GRIMM, fairytales can be dark and dramatic tales so it’s understandable that parents worry about reading them to young children.”
”As adults we can see the innocence in fairytales, but a five year old with an over active imagination could take things too literally.
”Despite the dark nature of classic fairytales, as we see in GRIMM, good will triumph over evil and there is always a moral to the story.”
The study also found two thirds of mums and dads try to avoid stories which might give their children nightmares.
However half of parents said traditional tales are more likely to have a strong moral message than a lot of modern kids’ books, such as The Gruffalo, The Hungary Caterpillar and the Mr Men books.
1. Hansel and Gretel – Details two kids abandoned in the forest and likely to scare young children
2. Jack and the Beanstalk – Deemed too ‘unrealistic’.3. Gingerbread Man – Would be uncomfortable explaining gingerbread man gets eaten by a fox4. Little Red Riding Hood – Deemed unsuitable by parents who have to explain a young girl’s grandmother has been eaten by a wolf.5. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves – the term dwarves was found to be inappropriate.
. Months before the Allies had landed in France it was clear to them that the Germans would soon be blitzkrieging back to the Fatherland and in order to make smooth the process of rebuilding that nation, a few Germans would be needed who understood the virtues of a republican form of government. In order to properly see the job through, two schools were built at Fort Getty, Rhode Island and Fort Eustis, Virginia.
