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Original poster

Is too much exposure to Disney princesses bad for a lttle girl?

264 replies

Shitemum · 13/12/2007 00:12

Trivial compared to some of the other threads in this topic, I know, but need to know if I should just indulge 4 yo DD1's princess phase or if I'm setting her up for a lifetime of waiting for her 'true love' to arrive on a white charger and whisk her off to 'happily ever after' (yeah, right).
Going to bed now but am genuinely interested in your replies!

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Anchovy · 13/12/2007 23:06

Ah, textual richness, Bink - where do we start. In my experience, the vocabulary you would learn from a DP book is very poor - one of the things that I loved as a small child was listening to my mother read me things that were denser and more complicated than things I plodded through on my own. Even if you couldn't quite understand every bit of it, personally I think it was quite enriching.

But those who want to think story time chez Anchovy is not a barrel of laughs because we don't do Belle etc are welcome to their own opinion!

TheHerdNerd · 13/12/2007 23:07

Errr... by "all" I meant "a small but visible minority", obviously

Anchovy · 13/12/2007 23:09

Bravo Welliemum!

I do like Richard Scarry. Apparently his parents had a general store in smalltown USA. He said that he used to sit on a sack in the corner and watch life come through the door. I think you can really see that from the books. They were an absolute favourite of mine as a small child and I'm delighted that my DCs have also enjoyed them

missgriss · 13/12/2007 23:09

I used to love all the Disney princesses. All my friends used to pretend we were the Little Mermaid or Belle or whoever, and we turned out ok....I can't see the harm it.

Bink · 13/12/2007 23:12

Hmm. My mother didn't read to me - wonder why not? Something about 4 kids in 5 years probably. But she has a wonderful turn of phrase - she once suggested to me that day-old fish pie was "... dispiriting, somehow" & we were both elated with the aptness of it. I am quite sure my love of words is hers.

I am reading Alice in Wonderland to ds & dd (inspired by thread on here) at the moment & it is glorious. There is now a little ritual of miming "You are old, Father William ..." each night - I think they should learn it. (They even insisted I went & found the Southey original for comparison.) Life chez Bink - it is a barrel of laughs albeit refayned ones.

Anchovy · 13/12/2007 23:12

Yes, TheHerdNerd - I completely agree. Just wait until your daughter is 4 and see what the cultural peer pressure is like!

welliemum · 13/12/2007 23:13

Oh and yes to the brain-numbing blandness of the princess "literature". I won't have it in the house. There's so much amazing fantasy stuff for children.

I have vivid memories of the story books we had when I was a small child - both pictures and words. Somehow they're larger than life in a way that later books don't quite match.

I'd be sad if my dds' earliest book memories were of that horrible formulaic bland rubbish.

Bink · 13/12/2007 23:13

that was all in response to Anchovy
and Welliemum, I'm with you on the ideological picket line

Bink · 13/12/2007 23:14

or is that the aesthetic picket line ...

Anchovy · 13/12/2007 23:16

I had to learn "you are Old Father William" at school (state) - don't think they do "compulsory" rote learning these days.

My grandparents (long dead, very working class, educated in tiny village schools in Norfolk) could recite reams of stuff by heart, and remembered it late into their lives.

Bink · 13/12/2007 23:19

Well of course we talked about why Alice would have this thing in her mind to get muddled up, & about rote-learning practices, which led instantly to (what else)

Harfleag harfleag harfleag onward
Into the er rode the six hundred

... which nearly made them sick with laughter

welliemum · 13/12/2007 23:19

Both, Bink.

"Beauty is truth; Truth, Beauty"....

TheHerdNerd · 13/12/2007 23:20

Anchovy - is the pressure resistable? Is it possible to chart a course away from all of that?

Anchovy · 13/12/2007 23:24

Careful, chaps - think you might be accused of being "snobs" if you're not careful, LOL.

Bink, ages ago you were looking at doing a thread for "age appropriate reading books". Building on my previous one, I think a "there is more to life than chuffing Disney princesses" list for 4-6 year old girls is sorely needed, TBH.

welliemum · 13/12/2007 23:25

We are not quite so high-minded as bink's lot chez wellie - at the moment we are enjoying "If Moses supposes his toeses are roses, then Moses supposes erroneously". Over and over and over.

But that's the point isn't it - you have to cast a very wide net to give your dc's even a tiny fraction of what's out there to enjoy.

Bink · 13/12/2007 23:27

HerdNerd - you don't need to be completely away from it (probably better that it doesn't become forbidden fruit) but there is such wonderful stuff out there - get to know your local library/children's bookshop. It really isn't the monopoly it would like you to think it is!

Bink · 13/12/2007 23:30

"It" in that last message of mine referring, naturally, to the Hegemony of Disney. Though hmm my very use of term contradicts what I was claiming about its not being a monopoly/hegemony. I need to go to bed.

And yes, Anchovy, the booklists project ...

Anchovy · 13/12/2007 23:31

TheHerdNerd - yes, I think it is, although you have to be careful of the Fifth Column, and cave-ing in yourself.

My DD is 4 and as feisty as anything (has an older brother, which sharpens her up a bit). Pink does not suit her at all (dark brown wonderfully curly hair, previously had eczema and pink used to make her look really blotchy). We deliberately seek out dark purples, brown and greens which really suit her - not wearing pink as a small girl, though, is a conscious choice.

I would only confiscate/lose wildly inappropriate presents (eg fluffy very high heeled slip on mules - eek!)but in general don't like huge amounts of branding and merchandising. Prefer imaginative stuff - people pretty much always ask what the DCs want as presents at this age, and we steer them towards, eg playmobil. We have quite a lot of lego/Knex around as well which helps.

Books - see threads passim.

Constant vigilance is my watchword!

allgumwrong · 13/12/2007 23:32

My dd is 3 and in full throttle for princesses and we've got a whole of stuff for her christmas. I don't think she is remotely aware of the whole marriage, happy ever after part, she just enjoys it as stories and it all being beautiful and lovely which is no bad thing.
I see it as a lovely phase of dress up and make believe before she gets to old. I am dreading the barbie years (I had Sindy as a girl), and have already put in a Bratz ban.
DD does however have a 6 year old brother and they watch each others tv programmes so that she also likes being the pink power ranger (complete with martial art psuedo moves),

charlie and lola is also a big hit with them for the wee sis and big bro. Dora and Diego are both watched by the both of them and she pretends to be Dora a lot (by simply putting on her backpack).
She also likes Sandy in SpongeBob, Gwen in Ben 10 and Mandy from Billy and Mandy, and Lisa Simpson.

She also likes being Rose or Martha in Doctor Who, , so I think she gets a good balance.

As she gets older i'll give her the darker side of fairy tales such as the russian ones that I had when little and Baba Yaga which I've always loved and the real version of the Little Mermaid as a lot of Hans Chrsitian Anderson's storeis were really quite grim, likewise the OScar Wilde children stories, think the Selfish Giant was the first story I cried about.
There's no need to destroy the magic just yet

welliemum · 13/12/2007 23:40

I think we also need a thread about "Bizarre bedtime books that your children enjoy" - dd1's current ones include "Living With Chickens". She loves looking at the pictures of the chickens, eggs, henhouse diagrams, baby chicks.

There's something to capture their attention anywhere you look. It doesn't have to be pink and fluffy. In fact I think little children have just as much of an appetite for reality as for fantasy, which is why Richard Scarry is so wonderful.

francagoestohollywood · 14/12/2007 09:20

Yes, Richard Scarry was a genius. I still have my 1970s books at my parents (somehow the drawings in the new editions are slightly different... ).

inamerrymuckingfuddle · 14/12/2007 09:26

oh I can't abide disney princesses and have done my absolute utmost to keep my DTDs shielded, they are 4 today and despite my best efforts are obsessed - but also happy with hobbits, charlie and lola, animals, history etc so I'm happy to go along with it so long as we maintain a balance. I blame my MIL who bought them the ghastly princess poppy books and SIL whose DD has every disney outfit, video, doll ever invented, poor girl

toomanysleighs · 14/12/2007 09:31

Ah, I love this thread. haven't got time to read it all, but BINK, are you me? Textual richness, the hegemony of disney, the vacuity of the characters, a penchant for Dido Twaite - you ARE me, aren't you?

francagoestohollywood · 14/12/2007 09:37

charles Perrault's Sleeping beauty

Anna8888 · 14/12/2007 09:42

more Charles Perrault with extraordinarily rich illustrations but in French.