Life Without Happily Ever After

Boys grow up knowing that big boys do not cry and they have to be manly to be needed by a girl. These boys do not grow up in castles and have fairy tale lives. Unlike these stories real adolescent teen boys are subjected to racy talk in locker rooms and have hormones raging through their bodies. These boys grow into men that are not from fairy tales however they are held to these standards. Young girls look at boys through eyes that expect them to sweep in on their white horse and make all their problems go away. We know that this is not fair just like it is not fair for many to want thier woman to be just the right mix of sexually aggressive and a house wife. Sometimes we look at the opposite sex and wonder how much easier it would have been for both of us if we did not expect so much and cannot help but wonder how much “once upon a time” has effected how we think.


What would a life be like without fairy tales? Would it be sad and bleak or less disappointing? Is it possible that woman could learn that men cannot read their minds and not to expect so much from them. Can women stand up and learn to save themselves? Is it possible for men to learn that all women are somewhere between a saint and a sinner? I have often wondered these thoughts and I have come to a conclusion in my head that little girls should be told stories of princesses rescuing the prince along with the other way around. At bed time I want my little girl to ask me to read her the story about the prince in distress that has a dashing princess that comes to the rescue.