Mom et al » Disney

Night Vision

Maria — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:54:54 +0000

When I was a small child my father remodeled my bedroom walls. It was the late seventies, and paneling was quite the fashion. My parents had chosen a white colored paneling, and I can recall that the etchings of the wood throughout each plank had a hunter green hue. I’m sure it was beautiful, the way the wood grain swirled throughout the length of each panel; however, at my tender age of five I saw something much different.

A couple of months ago my daughter started reporting the presence of people in her bedroom at night. She referred to them mostly as pictures, but was insistent that she sees a ghost, and most importantly a witch. She is afraid. She expels genuine tears, which are prompted by the knowledge that once I leave the room her visitors will appear to her. At a loss I probed her with questions such as “where do you see them”, “have you seen them before on TV or in a book” and “are you talking about dreams while you are sleeping?”

She is insistent that she has never seen them before (still, my immediate response is to curse myself for letting her watch that damn Snow White), and she is certain she is awake. Despite one questionable experience I have had in my home thus far, I am inclined to shy away from suggestion of paranormal activity, and choose instead to dive a little deeper into the mind and eyes of my four year old child.

While there are specific areas of the room where the ghost and witch appear, she has also reported the presence of faces in her headboard. This is where it became all too clear for me. As I ran my fingers over the wood, trying to find the patterns, I had a flash of memory.

Lying in my bedroom in my childhood home, I was crying and pleading with my mother to make the faces go away. “Look at the faces, they are right there!” I called out from my little twin bed. I watched my mother run her fingers along the new paneling, trying in earnest to see what she could not. In the end, my father had to paint the paneling a lovely shade of blue. I’m not sure if I ever told them, but even with the paint I could still see the faces. They were, however, less pronounced and I was able to sleep at night without feeling watched.

I saw no pattern in my daughter’s my headboard, but I do not doubt that for her the faces exist. So here we are in yet another phase of childhood development that I probably should have anticipated, but haven’t bothered to educate myself upon yet beyond memories of my own personal experience. Thus far my encouragement has been to think happy thoughts, to not look at them, reassurance that they are not real, and to trust in that I am never far away.

I can’t help but wonder if the night light is the problem. She is too afraid of the dark to go without one, but for this little imaginative child, I believe the shadows from the light are causing more harm than the darkness. My next steps will involve lying with her before sleep, dissecting the room, giving names to the objects in the shadows, and attempting to bring what is real to the forefront while banishing away the fallacies the mind can create.

I would love to hear if you have experienced this problem with your children, and what were your methods to combat the nighttime fears of preschoolers? As I reflect upon my task ahead, I am reminded of an old Suzanne Vega song:

I could shelter you

Keep you in light

But I can only teach you

Night vision

Villains

Maria — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:36:00 +0000

Why does that woman want to steal the little Dalmatian doggies? Well, my dear daughter, that mean looking lady wanted to kill those cute little puppies, take the skin from their dead bodies, and use it to make herself a fine looking, brand new winter fur coat.

OK fine, that was an inner monologue. My actual answer to the plot behind 101 Dalmatians was, at best, vague. Alright, it was a flat out lie. To spare me some time to work out how I would eventually answer, I loftily stated, “I don’t remember, honey…it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it.”

Let’s backtrack. Last weekend while visiting my parents, Sofia was diving into some old Disney VHS tapes that my mom had saved for the kids’ viewing pleasure. Earlier in the day she had found Snow White, and begged to watch it. This presented a wee bit of a problem. I’ve been reading the story of Snow White to her for several months now (over, and over, and oh-my-god-save-me over), but I have a tendency to tweak the bad parts. The whole, ‘Hey you. Woodsman. Take that Snow White out to the forest, kill her, and bring me back her heart in this here box to prove it’ bit? I change up the story big time.

Were I to let Sofia watch the movie, there would be no mistaking the plot change. I had concern over how much she would understand, and in turn be frightened. I’ve had this conundrum before. Though animated and meant for children, there’s no mistaking it that Disney can present some disturbing hard life lessons, fully equipped with the suggestion that villains are very real. I suffer inwardly with how much exposure to this tainted world I want my not quite four year old daughter to receive. I worry that once she is exposed she will conclude that some form of this world could truly exist. I’m not blind to the fact that she probably already has an inkling (even some kids at the age of three can be pretty darn cruel), but for my part I’d like to keep the issue at bay as long as possible.

In the end I relented and let Sofia watch Snow White. Prior to I had a discussion with her that she should keep in mind that the story is not real, and if she became scared she should let me know. I looked at her wearily as she watched Snow White cower from the Woodsman’s raised blade and then run for her life through the dark woods; its branches turning into ghostly hands and reaching to take hold of her clothing. She stared at the screen wide-eyed, but did not appear to be afraid. I sighed that perhaps I do not give her enough credit.

While I do consider Snow White to be much worse than 101 Dalmatians, I was able to postpone her viewing of the proposed puppy slaughter until her next visit to my parents’ house. I told myself that she will likely forget about it by then. When am I going to realize that I should know better than this? It’s been 4 days, and she has mentioned Cruella Deville every day, multiple times a day ever since she first spied that puppy-ful tape case.

What is that mean woman’s name again?
Why does she want to steal the puppies?
When are we going to Nonnie and Papa’s to watch it?

My curious little girl, she really wants to find out who this Cruella woman is all about. Sometimes I just wish I could keep out the bad stuff. But in reality I know without the villains to be triumphed, Sofia just wouldn’t find the stories all that interesting. I suppose if she’s going to have heroes to look up to, she’s going to need to experience her share of villains.

Good Versus Evil Through Toddler Eyes

Maria — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:47:00 +0000

My Sofia loves The Little Einsteins. While right now her favorite episode is “The Great Schubert’s Guessing Game”, she is also a big fan of “Brothers and Sisters to the Rescue”; a kinder version of Hansel and Gretel.

I find it interesting how much we try to protect our children from the old fables and nursery rhymes. In this version of Hansel and Gretel, the witch isn’t interested in eating the children; she only wants to hold them hostage inside her house as punishment for trespassing. When we were kids, they trespassed, they ate the witch’s house, and the witch tried to fatten them up so she can eat them in return. She doesn’t succeed, but we are none the less left with the mental image of the witch burning to death inside her own oven. That’s one that will rock a child to sleep at night.

Sofia doesn’t feel a threat from this witch. She laughs and screams “THE WITCH!!!” with gleeful adoration, as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony announces her entrance with its all too familiar 4 notes. I confess a small part of me smiles inwardly as she displays a natural draw towards this character. And I like the kind portrayal that even though the witch is the adversary of the episode, she is not inherently evil.

The old Disney movies that we grew up with weren’t exactly kid friendly; there was no denying the existence of good and evil, and both were portrayed with gusto. The villains were down right scary. The old witch from Snow White with the apple is a perfect example. Damn! She still gives me the creeps. Cinderella’s wicked step mother wasn’t visually scary, but her demeanor did not exactly resonate warm fuzzies. Don’t even get me started on Sleeping Beauty’s villain. Maleficent gave me nightmares. And I was much older when it came out, but if I had been a child while watching the Hunchback of Notre Dame for the first time, and saw Judge Claude Frollo in front of the fire singing about Esmeralda burning, I would have been head under the covers that night.

And so it was against my better judgment, that Sofia has already been shown the Disney version of The Little Mermaid, and now it’s all she wants to see. While it is a much lighter story than the original by Hans Christian Anderson (the prince doesn’t marry the princess, the mermaid doesn’t try to murder the prince, only to fail and turn into sea foam), it still has some scary moments. Ursula the Sea Witch can definitely hold her own on my top 10 list of scary Disney villains.

The reaction is fairly similar in that upon Ursula’s entrance, Sofia screams, “THE SEA WITCH!!” But this time around, she’s a little more distressed. She knows this witch is up to no good. She knows that Ariel has a battle, and at times is very sad. But she also knows that in the end Ariel wins and the big bad Sea Witch (did they really have to show her face as a skull when she gets electrocuted at the end?) goes away. If I am going to say anything positive about these villains, it’s that they usually get it in the end. Good triumphs evil. I guess if my little girl has to know about the two, at this point I’d like there to think that good will always win.

Oh, I have a funny anecdote to add. To Sofia, it’s not the Sea Witch…it’s the “C” Witch. I found this out yesterday and she was going on and on about how Ursula’s not the Bee Witch. I was saying to myself, what the heck is she talking about? There are no bees in The Little Mermaid. Took a little while for me to catch on, but I got there.

Good Versus Evil Through Toddler Eyes

Maria — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:47:00 +0000