Why we must stop telling stories of Cinderella and her prince charming to our daughters

It was a usual Sunday afternoon. I was cleaning the cupboards and listening to music when suddenly my little one came running and sat on the pile of clothes lying on the bed.

These days she’s quite fascinated by the life cycle of anything living that she spots around her. While yesterday it was the turn of a dog and a frog, today she asked me about the life cycle of a “human being”.

I started giving her my own example and told her how I was a small baby, then I grew up to be a girl like her, went to college, started working, got married and had a beautiful daughter etc etc.

“So one day even I will become big like you and then I will meet a handsome Prince and get married,” chirped my daughter who just turned five last week.

I told her yes you can, but it’s not necessary that you find a Prince charming and that it’s not necessary for you to get married either. My gal looked at me a little puzzled as she said but everyone gets married to a handsome prince like Cinderella and Jasmine.

It's time to change

It suddenly occurred to me that she was not wrong. After all that’s what happens in all the popular fairytales such as Cinderella, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and even the new-age stories such as Shrek.

All these stories talk about women who wait for a man to rescue them and then they get married and live happily ever after. And our kids have been exposed to these stories from such a young age that they have formed an impression in their fragile minds.

This is why we must stop telling them such stories. At a day and age when women have to fight for their rights and do everything on their own, it’s not right for us to tell them about these fictional characters and then leave them unprepared for life's problems.

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It’s time we introduced them to some real world power women who take matters into their own hand and deal with the problems rather than waiting for a man to save them!

There are millions of women around us who are living life on their own terms, despite the adversities. How about telling your child about Rani of Jhansi from the ancient Indian history to Sania Mirza, Kalpana Chawla and Sania Nehwal to Indian boxing champion Mary Kom? Why not familiarise your child with some real women and their brave stories and how they fought adversities and came out victorious?

As a mother I feel that we need to prepare our girls for the future. We need to raise smart, confident, brave girls who can take the world head on and are not afraid of facing challenges. We need to condition them and tell them that marriage is not the be all and end all of life.

"The Life Cycle" of woman need not have a "got married" and "had a baby" phase. We need to tell our daughters that there's more to life than that. We need to stop and that they need to be independent first and have a career of their own. They don't need to depend on a man to fulfil their desires and dreams. Not at all!

And, also that true love doesn't need to be between a man and woman, it can be between two friends and even siblings just like Anna and Elsa had in the movie Frozen, which showed that "an act of true love" need not be a true love's kiss, it could be a hug by your sister as well. That's what we need to teach our girls and we need to do that NOW!

Also Read: 12 things I will teach my daughters and you should too

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