September 22, 2025 • 18 mins
Children love to pretend to be princesses (and princes). When they do, we are provided with teachable moments about the personalities and, perhaps, flaws in the characters. Join Cindy and Alison to learn about discussions you might want to have with children who are pretending to be royalty.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to how preschool teachers do it.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Cindy, I'm Alison, and we have a combined fifty
five years of experience working with children, families, and experts
in early education.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
We are not random influence. No, we are not.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Whether you are new or have been our podcast Peep
since twenty eighteen, we are thrilled you found us. Hi
preschool Peeps, Hi Peep, welcome back. We're glad to have
you here, and we are especially glad to have people
here from Iceland.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hello, We're so excited. And also Queens, New York, Queens,
New York. Yes, these are two places we have never
shouted out, even though Queens.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Is pretty close to here, I mean, not through the traffic,
it's not, but yeah, it's true.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
But like Queen's New York. So I can't believe we
never talked about this.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
My son's fiance went to dental hygienis school in Queens,
New York. She did, and she's originally from Staten Island,
so that was not a stretch for her.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Right, but we uh, she was.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So I don't know how much you all know about
when people are studying to be dental hygienous, but it's
very very rigorous. I would have never known if it
wasn't for Angela. So it's very, very very rigorous, and
they have to work on a certain number of patients
while they're still students, or they can't take the boards
and they can't get their certification or whatever it's called.
So she was really, Oh my gosh, she was just
(01:31):
so desperate for patients. And my husband and I went
a few times.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I went, at least I didn't realize you were going
all the way to Queen.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
We went to the Queens.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
We did.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
We went to Queens.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I remember this happening, but I didn't realize it was
that that far.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
We went to Queens. So those of you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Who know Staten Island, no, okay, this.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Is if this is like one of those if you're
from our area, if you know, you know, going from
where we are to Queens was no small thing, I'll
tell you. But we were happy to do it for
her because we really we also wanted her to get
her and dental hygienist. She's a registered dental I don't
know what they call it is, and she's she's she did,
(02:15):
she passed her boards. She works in her field now,
this is we're talking about a while ago. But at
any rate, so that's my relationship with queens.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So shouting out dental hygienice, hello everybody. Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Also, I have a relationship with queens because I sometimes
provide professional development.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
For people who are in queens on Zoom.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So if you are like people who participate in the
quality rating and improvement system in New York Quality Stars
New York, one of their specialists, uh so often pretty
often has me.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Work with people who are in queens. Okay, yeah, so
high Queens.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I know you know you myself. Iceland. I've heard it's beautiful.
I've heard it's beautiful. I do want to visit there, because.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
We're always talking about where we want to go.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And here we sit on this podcast because money, but
here we are anyway, We're going to be talking today,
as you know from the title, about something having to
do with princesses, which anyone who's listened to this podcast
all knows that royalty in the royal family is something
that's right.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I'm just I'm just sort of fascinated by what a.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Spectacle they are in their lives. There are always wherever
you go, you're a spectacle. What must that feel like?
But that's we're not here to talk about like the
Royal Family of England. We're actually here to talk about
something that children love to pretend.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And this has been going on for a number of
years already.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Right as long as there's been princesses, I'm sure especially
these days because of the costumes that they get and
the marketing around the princess and the marketing around these princesses. Yeah,
it's like it's a lot.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
It's because when I was a kid, I don't remember
there being costumes that you could buy to pretend to
be Yeah, yeah, I don't remember that.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
We also didn't have when we were kids a lot
of the modern versions of these princesses.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
So at any rate, we're talking about these princesses that children,
oh my gosh, they just adore them.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And we saw a video that talked about the questionable
decisions that these princesses made. Yeah, they're questionable mental health
and decisions, and we realized this is worth talking about
because children are going to be fascinated with this, so
(04:40):
we might as well use this fascination in a way
that teaches them better decision making and mental.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Health yeah, like pretend all you want, but when it
comes to making a decision, maybe don't do what else
it did kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, kind of like that. So we can use Elsa
as the example.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
So when Elsa, I want you all think of the
story now A frozen right, when Elsa was angry, she
became aggressive just a little.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I mean, you know, she tried to freeze people.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
She froze people when she was mad, which.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
It's a little aggressive.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
A super a super hower I would love to have
maybe sometimes, but a little aggressive not the way to
handle when you're mad or angry at someone. Instead of
talking it out, let me just freeze you.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Let me freeze you. I wish I could do that
with some people.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yes, yes, there was somebody in the supermarket the other
day that if I could have frozen her and just
walked by, I would have loved it. Anyway, that is
a little aggressive. So you know, if children enjoy that story,
that's fine. But I think we have to do a
little talk around, Like, you know, Elsa was angry. Elsa
was angry, so let's talk about what else she could
have done other than trying to freeze her sister.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Like okay, So like.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Well, we read books, two children read them very intentionally,
and we talk about the emotions of the characters in
the book. But when it comes to these movies, which
is like, yeah, go ahead and pretend to be Elsa
when you could really make make it about something more like, Yes,
Elsa seems angry here, what could she do instead of
(06:17):
freezing her sister?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yes? What would be a better plan?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
A better plan?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
What can we do when we're mad at our at
our siblings, at our classmates? Like, what should we really
do in real life when we're mad?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
You know?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Fiction, it's fiction fiction.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I was watching a show I shared with Allison. I
know Alison watches it too, and there was there was
a situation in this show that's very similar to something
both Alison and I have experienced in our families, only
in the in the series that we were watching, the
person apologizes, and the two of us said, yeah, that's fiction.
Fiction that people like that, people like that don't apologize.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Exist in our world.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
That's what makes.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That TV show fiction, And what makes this fiction is like, yeah,
Elsa is a great story and all and I do
enjoy the character of Elsa, and I've actually told children,
you know, in some ways, Elsa is the hero, not Anna. Yes,
but but we also have to address that Elsa's behaving
in her anger in a way that could hurt her sister,
(07:19):
Like what else could we do?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Right right there? We have other examples of this, do
you want to do one?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Okay, she's looking at the notes.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
In case you thinks we don't prep We have notes,
all right?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So the Little Mermaid Ariel I love that story. That's
one of my favorites because that was when I came
out when.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I was a kid, and I just love the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I really do.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
I really love I remember parts of that movie that
I was like fascinated with, like when.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
She combs with the four because she has no idea.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
What a comb is that When when that first came
out and she did that, I just thought that was
the funniest thing. I don't love that Ursula is like
an older, overweight I think that's stereotyping, yes for someone
who's supposed to be mean, But I don't love that.
But I do love this story overall. Yes, So what
are you going to tell us about Ariel's.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Gave up everything her tale? Which, come on, if you
were a Mermaid, would you give up your tale, you
would not. She also gave up her voice, her family,
She gave up everything, which makes her a people pleaser.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
There you go, because she gave up everything to be
with this man. Right, So like Ariel is a people pleaser. Yes,
And so we have to think about what do we
say to children when they witness this people pleasing, when
they're watching this story or listening to this story.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
And I think one of the things.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
We can say is, you know, Ariel made some decisions
because she wanted to make.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Someone else happy, happy.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
But I think also it's a story of she changed
who she was. Yeah, she did to please other people.
And I don't ever think we should be teaching children
that you need.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
To change who you are to please someone, please someone else.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
You can still be who you are, whether it's a
mermaid or you, and still people will like you and
people will love you for being you.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You know, in early education we call this a teachable moment.
So children are pretending to be one of these characters,
or we're reading a book that has these characters, or
maybe at home you've seen the movie. It provides you
with this teachable moment, yes, right, it provides you with
an opportunity. This is an opportunity to point out a
(09:44):
life lesson to children. Yeah, you know, I hope everyone
grabs them. We have more, We have some more. We
could discuss one or two more. Which one you want
to do?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I don't even know. We have a bunch of them
written down.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Uh, let's let's skip this one, okay, and let's now
they're all like, what what.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Are they should put it somewhere the one that the
ones that we skipped, because that's not the only one,
I don't know, and put it somewhere else, like in
the forum on the website.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So snow White was just laughing at there's a lot
that story, and I think about the story.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
But she right, she lives with the I don't I
know that little people don't like this whole characterization. Have
they really.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Named the movie something different or they do they still
call the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I don't know, but I know that the Snow White
movie that recently came out was the subject of a
lot of protests having to do with stereotyping, depiction, who
they hired, lots of things, which I you know, I
can see the point. So snow White was very dependent
on these male people who.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
She's She's dependent on males.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
She's dependent on the male she's dependent Think about it
the whole story. She's dependent on those she lives with.
She's dependent on someone.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Right, isn't it to kiss her?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Come kiss her and wake her up? It has to
be a man.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
She's not exactly the strongest of women.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
My thing is to get on my soapbox. As a
person who was single for a very long time, I
don't rely on any man. If there is a man
who is in my life, it is there.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
He is there because I want him to be there,
not because I need him to be there. Because I
am a strong, independent person. I don't need anyone. But
snow White needs a lot a lot of people. So
it can be a lesson can be about just dependence
on other people.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And you know, sometimes we have to do things on
our own and be brave to do. But it can also,
I think, especially for girls.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Can be like you know, women can be independent.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
They don't need to depend on other people to help
them to you know, women can be very independent.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
And I think that there's a teachable moment in that. Yes, right,
I agree. It's a very teachable moment.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I also you know what you know, what I.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Don't like about that story is that that's not the
only story. It's also biblical that something so healthy like
an apple is made evil.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
True?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
That weird that it's biblical to you?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Right? How did?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Why?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
What's wrong? Why are we all picking on the apple?
It's always the app Is the apple always poison?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I wonder why does anybody know why the apple is
always like evil or poison?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Is it because of the Bible? Is it? Does it?
Is it just because that's how it is in the Bible?
So people stories that way? Maybe it is.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Maybe it's just biblical. People know that biblical story from
the Garden of Eden. And then so then therefore when
you write something like a fairy tale, the apple has
to be evil.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
But there is something to that because now there's probably
a group of children that are afraid to eat apples
because they might be poisonous.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yea, you have, like maybe poison something that was unhealthy,
like I don't know, donuts.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Even the things you think about, write that one bad
apple and spoil a whole bunch bunch. Yeah, Like it's
the poor apple. The apple doesn't do well in our society.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I know, right, is it any.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Wonder that we read these stories with children they are
like I don't want the apple, no, thank you. So
we're gonna both campaign for apples, yes, and dignity for
the apple. And we're gonna grab teachable moments when children
want to be these things even you know, I think
about the children who pretend to be like knights and
(14:04):
princes and right, like, it's always with violence.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Think about that. They're always being violent. They are they
are pretending they have swords, swords.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
And like that that's the only way to solve the
problem is with the sword.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Or right, so we can teach them. You know, wouldn't
it be amazing if the prince used the words?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Wouldn't that? Pretty sure?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Pretty sure? That's how most real princes do it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Real princes in our real world are you pretty much
using words? Not always nice words as we have seen,
but words. And this, folks, this is just like the
tip of the proverbial iceberg. When we're talking about here
are these older stories, these fairy tales that depict very
(14:54):
often depict like the females helpless.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
They need the mail.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
They are uh, their behavior is inappropriate?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Right there?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I mean, there was a note we had about Bell
Bell beauting the Beast, right the Beast, beuting the Beast,
Bell Bell having Stockholm syndrome because she falls in love
with pock Caunter.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
She definitely had Stockholm syndrome. Fell in love with her capture,
fell in love with her captor. Yeah, Stockholm, Stockholm, you
sympathize with your captor. Yeah, that's what she did. Yeah. Yeah,
And I don't know, I feel like the movies kind
of normalize all this.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, mental health issues.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Are you should not be normalized?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Are? Are you old enough to remember the series Beauty
and the Beast with like Ron Pearlman.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I forget who else was in it? Oh my gosh,
I'm so old.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
So there used to be a TV series of Beauty
and the Beast. I used to really like it.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
You know that there was even a TV series.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I bet you could find it on YouTube. I'm gonna
look now, I'll bet you, folks you.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Could find it.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I really liked it, and I really you know, there
was something about that idea that I don't know what
it is. I guess because we all want peace and
nobody wants anyone heard or captive.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Or I don't know. But I mean, I think grab
the teachable moments people, I know.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Because then what I'm about to say is probably not
the right thing to say. In that there have been
many true life people who have been held captive that
rescued themselves by pretending to be in love with their
captor and that's how they got out. Yeah, right, I mean,
I guess, but is this really the right thing to do?
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
I don't know, because it normalizes like women being held
captive and that's a thing that you should fall in
love with, and no, you should not.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Well, there are different there are different types of forms
of captivity. Yes, could be mental health, could be like
someone is holding you emotionally captive emotions to physically.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And when you normalize this, so what's the lesson that
The lesson is like, think for yourself, Yes, think for
yourself and if ever there and you can be strong.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
By yourself and you can be independent by yourself.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Right, And if you ever there's a person who makes
you feel.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
A certain yes, that's not love. Get out. That's not love.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
If someone is making you feel physically or emotionally trapped out,
whether whether it's a friendship whatever you gotta get. And
you know what, children experience that sort of possessive friendship
from surprisingly young ages where they go, you're my best friend.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
You can't play with.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Her, You're not allowed to play with her, holding you
captive a little bit.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, and we need to give children the way to
say no, I can make my own decisions.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yes, you could be friends with more than one person.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I feel like everybody should go ponder this.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Now, what is the teachable lesson in these stories that
children love to hear, see and act out?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Can we put this?
Speaker 4 (17:52):
We have on the website the forum right where people
can just talk to each other.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, people have responded.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Put this in the form so people can start being
like in Cinderella, this happens blah and have a discussion.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
You can put that in the forum and see if
people respond.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
All right.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
We have discussion forum on our website and on the
spaces by WISP.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Some few people people have.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I think it'd be great if we could all get
on there and just go back and forth and talk
to each other.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Agreed.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, all right, So everybody go to how Preschool Teachers
Do It dot com and or the spaces by wix
app and get into our discussion forum, which you can
find on our website. Uh, she's looking at dates now,
I shall have to.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Write it down, all right, will forget to do this?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I just set up to do it so unedible.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
We are all right, We're gonna let you all go.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Well, we determine when this is and we will catch
you next time on the podcast after you have grabbed
some new teachable moments.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Bye Princesses, Bye peeps,
Welcome to how preschool teachers do it.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Cindy, I'm Alison, and we have a combined fifty
five years of experience working with children, families, and experts
in early education.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
We are not random influence. No, we are not.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Whether you are new or have been our podcast Peep
since twenty eighteen, we are thrilled you found us. Hi
preschool Peeps, Hi Peep, welcome back. We're glad to have
you here, and we are especially glad to have people
here from Iceland.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hello, We're so excited. And also Queens, New York, Queens,
New York. Yes, these are two places we have never
shouted out, even though Queens.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Is pretty close to here, I mean, not through the traffic,
it's not, but yeah, it's true.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
But like Queen's New York. So I can't believe we
never talked about this.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
My son's fiance went to dental hygienis school in Queens,
New York. She did, and she's originally from Staten Island,
so that was not a stretch for her.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Right, but we uh, she was.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So I don't know how much you all know about
when people are studying to be dental hygienous, but it's
very very rigorous. I would have never known if it
wasn't for Angela. So it's very, very very rigorous, and
they have to work on a certain number of patients
while they're still students, or they can't take the boards
and they can't get their certification or whatever it's called.
So she was really, Oh my gosh, she was just
(01:31):
so desperate for patients. And my husband and I went
a few times.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I went, at least I didn't realize you were going
all the way to Queen.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
We went to the Queens.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
We did.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
We went to Queens.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I remember this happening, but I didn't realize it was
that that far.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
We went to Queens. So those of you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Who know Staten Island, no, okay, this.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Is if this is like one of those if you're
from our area, if you know, you know, going from
where we are to Queens was no small thing, I'll
tell you. But we were happy to do it for
her because we really we also wanted her to get
her and dental hygienist. She's a registered dental I don't
know what they call it is, and she's she's she did,
(02:15):
she passed her boards. She works in her field now,
this is we're talking about a while ago. But at
any rate, so that's my relationship with queens.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So shouting out dental hygienice, hello everybody. Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Also, I have a relationship with queens because I sometimes
provide professional development.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
For people who are in queens on Zoom.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So if you are like people who participate in the
quality rating and improvement system in New York Quality Stars
New York, one of their specialists, uh so often pretty
often has me.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Work with people who are in queens. Okay, yeah, so
high Queens.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I know you know you myself. Iceland. I've heard it's beautiful.
I've heard it's beautiful. I do want to visit there, because.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
We're always talking about where we want to go.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And here we sit on this podcast because money, but
here we are anyway, We're going to be talking today,
as you know from the title, about something having to
do with princesses, which anyone who's listened to this podcast
all knows that royalty in the royal family is something
that's right.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I'm just I'm just sort of fascinated by what a.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Spectacle they are in their lives. There are always wherever
you go, you're a spectacle. What must that feel like?
But that's we're not here to talk about like the
Royal Family of England. We're actually here to talk about
something that children love to pretend.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And this has been going on for a number of
years already.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Right as long as there's been princesses, I'm sure especially
these days because of the costumes that they get and
the marketing around the princess and the marketing around these princesses. Yeah,
it's like it's a lot.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
It's because when I was a kid, I don't remember
there being costumes that you could buy to pretend to
be Yeah, yeah, I don't remember that.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
We also didn't have when we were kids a lot
of the modern versions of these princesses.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
So at any rate, we're talking about these princesses that children,
oh my gosh, they just adore them.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And we saw a video that talked about the questionable
decisions that these princesses made. Yeah, they're questionable mental health
and decisions, and we realized this is worth talking about
because children are going to be fascinated with this, so
(04:40):
we might as well use this fascination in a way
that teaches them better decision making and mental.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Health yeah, like pretend all you want, but when it
comes to making a decision, maybe don't do what else
it did kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, kind of like that. So we can use Elsa
as the example.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
So when Elsa, I want you all think of the
story now A frozen right, when Elsa was angry, she
became aggressive just a little.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I mean, you know, she tried to freeze people.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
She froze people when she was mad, which.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
It's a little aggressive.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
A super a super hower I would love to have
maybe sometimes, but a little aggressive not the way to
handle when you're mad or angry at someone. Instead of
talking it out, let me just freeze you.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Let me freeze you. I wish I could do that
with some people.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yes, yes, there was somebody in the supermarket the other
day that if I could have frozen her and just
walked by, I would have loved it. Anyway, that is
a little aggressive. So you know, if children enjoy that story,
that's fine. But I think we have to do a
little talk around, Like, you know, Elsa was angry. Elsa
was angry, so let's talk about what else she could
have done other than trying to freeze her sister.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Like okay, So like.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Well, we read books, two children read them very intentionally,
and we talk about the emotions of the characters in
the book. But when it comes to these movies, which
is like, yeah, go ahead and pretend to be Elsa
when you could really make make it about something more like, Yes,
Elsa seems angry here, what could she do instead of
(06:17):
freezing her sister?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yes? What would be a better plan?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
A better plan?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
What can we do when we're mad at our at
our siblings, at our classmates? Like, what should we really
do in real life when we're mad?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
You know?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Fiction, it's fiction fiction.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I was watching a show I shared with Allison. I
know Alison watches it too, and there was there was
a situation in this show that's very similar to something
both Alison and I have experienced in our families, only
in the in the series that we were watching, the
person apologizes, and the two of us said, yeah, that's fiction.
Fiction that people like that, people like that don't apologize.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Exist in our world.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
That's what makes.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That TV show fiction, And what makes this fiction is like, yeah,
Elsa is a great story and all and I do
enjoy the character of Elsa, and I've actually told children,
you know, in some ways, Elsa is the hero, not Anna. Yes,
but but we also have to address that Elsa's behaving
in her anger in a way that could hurt her sister,
(07:19):
Like what else could we do?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Right right there? We have other examples of this, do
you want to do one?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Okay, she's looking at the notes.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
In case you thinks we don't prep We have notes,
all right?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So the Little Mermaid Ariel I love that story. That's
one of my favorites because that was when I came
out when.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I was a kid, and I just love the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I really do.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
I really love I remember parts of that movie that
I was like fascinated with, like when.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
She combs with the four because she has no idea.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
What a comb is that When when that first came
out and she did that, I just thought that was
the funniest thing. I don't love that Ursula is like
an older, overweight I think that's stereotyping, yes for someone
who's supposed to be mean, But I don't love that.
But I do love this story overall. Yes, So what
are you going to tell us about Ariel's.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Gave up everything her tale? Which, come on, if you
were a Mermaid, would you give up your tale, you
would not. She also gave up her voice, her family,
She gave up everything, which makes her a people pleaser.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
There you go, because she gave up everything to be
with this man. Right, So like Ariel is a people pleaser. Yes,
And so we have to think about what do we
say to children when they witness this people pleasing, when
they're watching this story or listening to this story.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
And I think one of the things.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
We can say is, you know, Ariel made some decisions
because she wanted to make.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Someone else happy, happy.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
But I think also it's a story of she changed
who she was. Yeah, she did to please other people.
And I don't ever think we should be teaching children
that you need.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
To change who you are to please someone, please someone else.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
You can still be who you are, whether it's a
mermaid or you, and still people will like you and
people will love you for being you.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You know, in early education we call this a teachable moment.
So children are pretending to be one of these characters,
or we're reading a book that has these characters, or
maybe at home you've seen the movie. It provides you
with this teachable moment, yes, right, it provides you with
an opportunity. This is an opportunity to point out a
(09:44):
life lesson to children. Yeah, you know, I hope everyone
grabs them. We have more, We have some more. We
could discuss one or two more. Which one you want
to do?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I don't even know. We have a bunch of them
written down.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Uh, let's let's skip this one, okay, and let's now
they're all like, what what.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Are they should put it somewhere the one that the
ones that we skipped, because that's not the only one,
I don't know, and put it somewhere else, like in
the forum on the website.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So snow White was just laughing at there's a lot
that story, and I think about the story.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
But she right, she lives with the I don't I
know that little people don't like this whole characterization. Have
they really.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Named the movie something different or they do they still
call the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I don't know, but I know that the Snow White
movie that recently came out was the subject of a
lot of protests having to do with stereotyping, depiction, who
they hired, lots of things, which I you know, I
can see the point. So snow White was very dependent
on these male people who.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
She's She's dependent on males.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
She's dependent on the male she's dependent Think about it
the whole story. She's dependent on those she lives with.
She's dependent on someone.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Right, isn't it to kiss her?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Come kiss her and wake her up? It has to
be a man.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
She's not exactly the strongest of women.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
My thing is to get on my soapbox. As a
person who was single for a very long time, I
don't rely on any man. If there is a man
who is in my life, it is there.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
He is there because I want him to be there,
not because I need him to be there. Because I
am a strong, independent person. I don't need anyone. But
snow White needs a lot a lot of people. So
it can be a lesson can be about just dependence
on other people.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And you know, sometimes we have to do things on
our own and be brave to do. But it can also,
I think, especially for girls.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Can be like you know, women can be independent.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
They don't need to depend on other people to help
them to you know, women can be very independent.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
And I think that there's a teachable moment in that. Yes, right,
I agree. It's a very teachable moment.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I also you know what you know, what I.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Don't like about that story is that that's not the
only story. It's also biblical that something so healthy like
an apple is made evil.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
True?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
That weird that it's biblical to you?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Right? How did?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Why?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
What's wrong? Why are we all picking on the apple?
It's always the app Is the apple always poison?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I wonder why does anybody know why the apple is
always like evil or poison?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Is it because of the Bible? Is it? Does it?
Is it just because that's how it is in the Bible?
So people stories that way? Maybe it is.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Maybe it's just biblical. People know that biblical story from
the Garden of Eden. And then so then therefore when
you write something like a fairy tale, the apple has
to be evil.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
But there is something to that because now there's probably
a group of children that are afraid to eat apples
because they might be poisonous.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yea, you have, like maybe poison something that was unhealthy,
like I don't know, donuts.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Even the things you think about, write that one bad
apple and spoil a whole bunch bunch. Yeah, Like it's
the poor apple. The apple doesn't do well in our society.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I know, right, is it any.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Wonder that we read these stories with children they are
like I don't want the apple, no, thank you. So
we're gonna both campaign for apples, yes, and dignity for
the apple. And we're gonna grab teachable moments when children
want to be these things even you know, I think
about the children who pretend to be like knights and
(14:04):
princes and right, like, it's always with violence.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Think about that. They're always being violent. They are they
are pretending they have swords, swords.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
And like that that's the only way to solve the
problem is with the sword.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Or right, so we can teach them. You know, wouldn't
it be amazing if the prince used the words?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Wouldn't that? Pretty sure?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Pretty sure? That's how most real princes do it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Real princes in our real world are you pretty much
using words? Not always nice words as we have seen,
but words. And this, folks, this is just like the
tip of the proverbial iceberg. When we're talking about here
are these older stories, these fairy tales that depict very
(14:54):
often depict like the females helpless.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
They need the mail.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
They are uh, their behavior is inappropriate?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Right there?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I mean, there was a note we had about Bell
Bell beauting the Beast, right the Beast, beuting the Beast,
Bell Bell having Stockholm syndrome because she falls in love
with pock Caunter.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
She definitely had Stockholm syndrome. Fell in love with her capture,
fell in love with her captor. Yeah, Stockholm, Stockholm, you
sympathize with your captor. Yeah, that's what she did. Yeah. Yeah,
And I don't know, I feel like the movies kind
of normalize all this.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, mental health issues.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Are you should not be normalized?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Are? Are you old enough to remember the series Beauty
and the Beast with like Ron Pearlman.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I forget who else was in it? Oh my gosh,
I'm so old.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
So there used to be a TV series of Beauty
and the Beast. I used to really like it.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
You know that there was even a TV series.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I bet you could find it on YouTube. I'm gonna
look now, I'll bet you, folks you.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Could find it.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I really liked it, and I really you know, there
was something about that idea that I don't know what
it is. I guess because we all want peace and
nobody wants anyone heard or captive.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Or I don't know. But I mean, I think grab
the teachable moments people, I know.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Because then what I'm about to say is probably not
the right thing to say. In that there have been
many true life people who have been held captive that
rescued themselves by pretending to be in love with their
captor and that's how they got out. Yeah, right, I mean,
I guess, but is this really the right thing to do?
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
I don't know, because it normalizes like women being held
captive and that's a thing that you should fall in
love with, and no, you should not.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Well, there are different there are different types of forms
of captivity. Yes, could be mental health, could be like
someone is holding you emotionally captive emotions to physically.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And when you normalize this, so what's the lesson that
The lesson is like, think for yourself, Yes, think for
yourself and if ever there and you can be strong.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
By yourself and you can be independent by yourself.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Right, And if you ever there's a person who makes
you feel.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
A certain yes, that's not love. Get out. That's not love.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
If someone is making you feel physically or emotionally trapped out,
whether whether it's a friendship whatever you gotta get. And
you know what, children experience that sort of possessive friendship
from surprisingly young ages where they go, you're my best friend.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
You can't play with.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Her, You're not allowed to play with her, holding you
captive a little bit.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, and we need to give children the way to
say no, I can make my own decisions.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yes, you could be friends with more than one person.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I feel like everybody should go ponder this.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Now, what is the teachable lesson in these stories that
children love to hear, see and act out?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Can we put this?
Speaker 4 (17:52):
We have on the website the forum right where people
can just talk to each other.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, people have responded.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Put this in the form so people can start being
like in Cinderella, this happens blah and have a discussion.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
You can put that in the forum and see if
people respond.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
All right.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
We have discussion forum on our website and on the
spaces by WISP.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Some few people people have.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I think it'd be great if we could all get
on there and just go back and forth and talk
to each other.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Agreed.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah, all right, So everybody go to how Preschool Teachers
Do It dot com and or the spaces by wix
app and get into our discussion forum, which you can
find on our website. Uh, she's looking at dates now,
I shall have to.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Write it down, all right, will forget to do this?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I just set up to do it so unedible.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
We are all right, We're gonna let you all go.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Well, we determine when this is and we will catch
you next time on the podcast after you have grabbed
some new teachable moments.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Bye Princesses, Bye peeps,
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