Living a Fairy Tale Life

Life

Living a Fairy Tale Life

How Disney and story book princesses pave the way to motherhood.

A couple of days ago I baked a cake for my one year old. I sighed at the huge pile of laundry that albeit clean still needed folding and sorting. I then shrugged my shoulders at the pile of dishes (including the aforementioned ones used to make the cake) and served my kids and husband dinner.

Cinderella

Thinking on the endless chores, I could not help but remember the story of Cinderella and her life with her step mother and step sisters. This is what life feels like. My four year old complaining his food is too hot. My eight year old wondering why he had no pants in his drawer. My husband exhausted from minding our baby for an hour while she fussed. I had been making dinner at the time.

Like Cinderella, I keep up the pace. I am conditioned to keep striving to do my best although the people around me never stop with the demands. The main body of the story surrounds what she is capable of doing and how much housework and vile tempers she is able to bear. That is the lesson.

Servitude to family is a virtue that will be rewarded.

Cinderella has to finish all of her tasks before she is allowed to think of herself. By then, time has passed and she is too late be prepared. She relies on external forces to help her appearance. I too need my mother or another, usually a girlfriend or sister, to snap me out of my routine and to practice self care.

Finally it is the moment when I panic because I am running late, too busy, taken on too much (I don’t so much lose my shoes as lose my head) and Prince Charming, my partner comes to my rescue. He notices I need a hand and that he should take charge of the situation.

Beauty and the Beast

Belle is forever stuck in a book. That was my life until I had children. Most people when hearing about Beauty and the Beast think that the moral of the story is not to judge a book by its cover. This is true.

The lesson I learned from the original story was from when the father asks his three daughters what they want as a gift from his journey. The other two sisters (non existent in the Disney version) ask for riches and jewelry. Belle asks for nothing but a rose. It is this rose that the merchant steals from the Beast’s garden that incurs his wrath. The beast asks the merchant to bring back to him the first thing he encounters at home when he returns. Belle is the first to jump into his arms to greet him, and so begins her story.

People are more valuable than things.

I never ask for anything. Even for mother’s day, a simple flower like a rose is sufficient to feel appreciated. For me, the love of my parents, my husband, my children are the most important things. The people in Belle’s life are what matter the most, her father and eventually her beast. She is a soul that recognizes the value of people over that of objects. Her father’s return was more important than his success as a merchant. Going to her father in his time of need and then returning to the beast are the defining moments of the story.

A note should be added here regarding “Do not steal”. Had the father never stolen the rose, he would not have begun the story. The same goes in the story of Rapunzel which begins with the father stealing Rapunzel the herb from the witch’s garden for his wife.

Sleeping Beauty

The obvious lesson from sleeping beauty is to not take gifts from strangers. I would never take an apple offered by a strange lady at my door.

The less obvious take home is this:

Be aware of what intentions people have towards you.

People like the evil queen will do terrible things to you if they feel threatened by you. Followers like the huntsman can be manipulated to do bad things to you. A lot of bullying can be explained by the plot of Sleeping Beauty. Unfortunately, Sleeping Beauty never learns from this lesson and no solution is offered.

Mulan & Brave

Don’t let anyone tell you what you can not do because you are a girl. Hard work pays off. Make your own destiny and when in doubt, act like a boy.

Act like a man IF you see that being a man will push you to be stronger, smarter, and more aggressive on your journey to reach your goals.

The Little Mermaid

The original story of the little mermaid had a sad ending. I prefer the sad ending. The mermaid fails in her bid to win the prince’s heart and is turned to sea spray. Life can be full of heartbreak. I wish the younger generations could learn this lesson through this version of the story before throwing themselves at the prince.

You will not always get what you strive for.

As for the Disney remake with Ariel, from this version I took home the lesson of always looking at everything with wonder. She is forever amazed and excited by all the things around her. As I became older and the world turned darker, it was harder to have that childlike joy in things.

Find Joy in mundane things.

Remind ourselves that we are the story book princesses no matter how many years have passed.