Once upon a time, I’m sure all of us had childhood fantasies, some dreamt that a prince charming would come riding on a white horse and save them, while others dreamt of having supernatural powers but ah ! than the reality hits. Tales and stories define life to children. We all grew up listening to fairy tales such as Cinderella, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. Fairy tales without a doubt were something all of us enjoyed reading and listening to during our childhood. 

Fairy tales play a vital role for the growth of a child’s imagination by portraying life as a fantasy. Children go out into the world believing that it would be just like the fairy tales they’re told until they realise from the experience it’s not what they imagined. By depicting the real world combined with fantasies, tales forces the child to many contemplations and conceptions. Fairytales teaches them a lesson because the stories they are given are a desired vision for reality. While listening/reading to fairy tales, children are influenced through its contents and therefore their imagination progresses and takes on new levels. The moral of the story teaches and nurtures the child having a positive impact on the child’s development. For example, in beauty and the beast it wasn’t the looks that made her fall in love with him but it was the genuineness of his heart. 

Fairy tales do have their disadvantages as well. Despite being positive, fairy tales usually demand unrealistic expectations of life which could bring about disappointment and regret for children in the future. They design and generate false worlds where everything seems to work out perfectly and lead to the notion of ‘living happily ever after’. It can be heartbreaking for some children as their fairytale image doesn’t match reality. This could harm their life and leads to low self-esteem, an outdated sense of reality, unrealistic ideas of love and an extreme understanding of good vs evil. Life can be a fairytale, the only difference here is that you are the author of your story.