Oh Be Careful Little Ears

While listening to a popular children's story on tape playing in my son's room, I felt rather concerned about the words coming over the speaker...

"...the three little pigs set out to make a fortune in the world because their mother couldn't take care of them anymore."

I hope my son doesn't assume all mothers come to such ends.

Of course the reoccurring big bad wolf who eats two of the poor, neglected piglets, doesn't seem to make for such a peaceful bedtime story either.

While singing a lullaby to a restless baby, I find the reason to the poor baby's restlessness...

"Rock-a-bye baby, in the tree top.... and down will come baby, cradle and all."

It is excused why the gingerbread man is allowed to be eaten because we all know that he was a cookie and all cookies baked by nice farm women are intended for consumption. Even if you are a sly fox. It took Landon a few Gingerbread Man story times before he didn't feel sad for the poor gingerbread man who just really didn't want to be killed.

Or, what about the old woman who lived in a shoe and had so many children she didn't know what to do so she spanked them all soundly and sent them to bed without any butter or bread? When I was a kid, I just figured I didn't have it as bad as the old woman's children living in a shoe and going to bed hungry and spanked for no reason. I guess there's a good moral to this story.

After listening to one barrage of horror stories after another in Mother Goose books, popular bedtime stories and well meaning lullaby's, many loving parents limit their children's story ears to only the safe realms of Bible stories.

I always thought that was a good, conservative and godly route to follow. Until my friend told me how frightened her 5 year old son became after listening to the Christmas story and Harod's frenzy of killing all children 2 years old and younger. The boy has 3 siblings in that age bracket so I can imagine the reason for his terror.

Landon's popular reading material is Curious George. So far there have been no real frightening stories coming from the attractive, hard back monkey books. Although there have been a few confusing details on Landon's part...

(over heard at the supper table)

Daddy: "Landon, where does God live?"

Landon: "God lives in Aferka."

Oh dear.