Fractured fairy tales part of growing up

I was idly browsing the offerings for children's books on one of my favorite web sites the other day when I happened to find one titled, "Cinder Edna," by Ellen Jackson.

The blurb said it is about Cinderella's neighbor, Cinder Edna. Edna is in the same dire straits as Cinderella but doesn't need a fairy godmother. When the ball is announced, Edna wears the dress she put on layaway and paid for by cleaning out parrot cages and mowing lawns.

She falls in love with the prince's younger brother, they get married and live in a solar-powered cottage and in general have a rollicking good time while Cinderella finds out that her prince is boring and life with him is not all she expected.

I have to get this book for grandchildren Emma and Jacob.

First of all it reminds me of when I used to amend the books I read to my daughter. The Pocahontas story had a sentence that mentioned "red Indians." I usually read it to say, "green, purple, and brown Indians" or some other combination of colors.

Goldilocks was another story I couldn't help but change. My version usually ended with Goldilocks being arrested for trespassing and breaking chairs. The bears had to go to court to testify against her and Goldilocks never broke into a cottage again.

It seems that most of the fairy tales I learned as a child had the princess being rescued by the prince. The princess was never resourceful, she was never self-sufficient and was doomed unless the prince rescued her.

I think that is one of the reasons why so many of my generation were so disappointed when we found out that our prince passed gas at inopportune moments, couldn't cook and was unwilling to pick up after himself.

Of course, we weren't up to princess standards, either. We never wore high heels while cleaning the house, we snored, we tried new recipes with disastrous results and broke down in tears at unpredictable times.

As a matter of fact, we are all human. We make mistakes. We have hopes and dreams and unreasonable expectations.

Emma loves being a princess. She adores the frills and the crown. However, she is resourceful enough that she doesn't need a prince to rescue her. She can do it herself, whatever "it" may be.

I'm sure this will be a relief for Jacob. He isn't quite big enough to fight dragons and wicked witches yet as he has just now learned how to roll over all by himself. I think it is far better to teach our children to be self-sufficient than to teach them to wait for someone to rescue them.

I believe that most of us are far stronger than we think we are. Of course, there are things we simply cannot do. For instance, I am incapable of putting air in car tires. I know how. I just can't do it. I can't wash the inside of a car window without streaking it. There are certain things I can't open without the use of a hammer (which defeats the purpose as the contents are then rendered unusable) and there are any number of additional things I am incapable of doing.

On the other hand, I make fantastic baked goods, passable bread, and can do some really great stitchery. I am good at finding out things. Flowers seems to enjoy growing for me and I am very good at helping elderly people navigate the front steps at work. I am good with words, as long as they are on paper. Talking is sometimes a bit difficult as sometimes more than one word wants to come out at the same time. This makes me sound stupid. I am extremely good at sounding stupid.

Nobody is good at everything. Most of us fail more often than we succeed. That is why we need each other. My husband is really good at opening things. He is better at reaching things than I am because he is more than a foot taller than I am. He can also put air in tires without even thinking about it.

We balance each other out and maybe that is the moral of the story. Princesses don't need to be rescued, they just need someone to open the pickle jar.[[In-content Ad]]