What fairy tales will you pass on to your children?

Tweet

As we are approaching Easter sunday, I marvel at the tales parents pass on to their children. My stepdaughter is 9 and she is still encouraged to believe in the Easter bunny. I asked my husband how does his family square this pagan holy-day with their Catholic belief of Jesus' resurrection? I asked him if he would mind if I taught his children what I taught my own children about the spring equinox. At least that way the bunnies and eggs and chicks would make sense (fertility.) I didn't really expect it to be okay with him, just wanted to give him something to think about. I mean, why do parents pass on mythology that they themselves do not believe or understand, to their children? My mother read to us nightly. She read Aesop's Fables, the brothers Grimm and Hans C. Anderson in the same spirit as she read the parables of the bible. Those stories provided guidelines and standards for life while sparking our imaginations. Yet,I never once expected a wolf or a fish to speak to me. Or a burning bush, for that matter. When my children were young, we celebrated Christmas and all the other holidays...with the understanding that, although there were wonderful stories attached to these celebrations, that's all they were - stories. I don't believe that we have to distort our children's perception of reality in order for them to dream and love the wonders of life. Quite the opposite. In this day and age of information, what fairy tales will you pass on to your children and what do you hope to inspire in them?