Any way to delay or avoid the Disney princess obsession?

[Anonymous]

I never restricted my daughter but she never got that into it aside from watching the movies, which I agree are often good. I suspect you’ll quickly get over the obsession that everything that enters your daughters head be educational! LOL

[Anonymous]

What is wrong with some of you? Ariel is AWESOME! She has a dream (to be human), and she figures out how to make it happen. I feel like people have decided that she gives up her voice just for Eric, but that is not really what’s happening. She has longed to be human her whole life - the fact that she develops a crush on Eric is incidental. It’s not like she is giving up her happy, satisfied life under the sea just to be with him... And as far as the movie goes, the songs are all great and Ursula is a fantastic villain (not motivated by jealousy of some younger woman - she doesn’t give a darn about Ariel).

All of my kids (boys and girls) love the Little Mermaid. It’s a great movie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has ANYONE read OP’s thread? He/she says they want to try to put off the Disney thing until their daughter is 4. They are not saying that they are robbing the child of her childhood by withholding pink and girl stuff or movies or later on Disney.

They don’t want their 2 yo watching Disney NOW when she is just 2 when you know PEDIATRICIANS say toddler should have verrrrry little screen time and when they do it should be educational not cartoons. Themes of modern Disney characters being brave, smart, helpful whatever is not going to teach a 2 yo child how to read or write or learn preschool tasks. It could be Disney or The Grinch or The Simpsons. It doesn’t provide what is typical educational and foundational learning for a toddler. Plain and simple.

+1

I don’t personally have a problem with Disney, but I didn’t have my son and daughter begin to watch movies until they were 4. Up until then it was Baby Einstein mostly. I don’t think 1, 2, 3 year olds need to be watching movies. It’s better that they watch learning TV shows and not a lot each day.

[Anonymous]

We have all the Frozen and Moana Lego, so it’s princess stuff but also builder stuff

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has ANYONE read OP’s thread? He/she says they want to try to put off the Disney thing until their daughter is 4. They are not saying that they are robbing the child of her childhood by withholding pink and girl stuff or movies or later on Disney.

They don’t want their 2 yo watching Disney NOW when she is just 2 when you know PEDIATRICIANS say toddler should have verrrrry little screen time and when they do it should be educational not cartoons. Themes of modern Disney characters being brave, smart, helpful whatever is not going to teach a 2 yo child how to read or write or learn preschool tasks. It could be Disney or The Grinch or The Simpsons. It doesn’t provide what is typical educational and foundational learning for a toddler. Plain and simple.

+1

I don’t personally have a problem with Disney, but I didn’t have my son and daughter begin to watch movies until they were 4. Up until then it was Baby Einstein mostly. I don’t think 1, 2, 3 year olds need to be watching movies. It’s better that they watch learning TV shows and not a lot each day.

Well yeah, none of are kids watched much TV until the pandemic. We have tried board games but the 10 yr old is DONE with candy land and the 3 year can’t master Uno yet, so movies are of few things we can all do and parents can not have to mitigate fights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has ANYONE read OP’s thread? He/she says they want to try to put off the Disney thing until their daughter is 4. They are not saying that they are robbing the child of her childhood by withholding pink and girl stuff or movies or later on Disney.

They don’t want their 2 yo watching Disney NOW when she is just 2 when you know PEDIATRICIANS say toddler should have verrrrry little screen time and when they do it should be educational not cartoons. Themes of modern Disney characters being brave, smart, helpful whatever is not going to teach a 2 yo child how to read or write or learn preschool tasks. It could be Disney or The Grinch or The Simpsons. It doesn’t provide what is typical educational and foundational learning for a toddler. Plain and simple.

Seems you have reading problems. OP said she would prefer to avoid the “Disney junk” altogether but accepts it may become inevitable at 4 when she surmises other kids will be watching it.

[Anonymous]

Screen time for potty training is a bad idea anyways- princess or not.

If you really want a well-rounded child, expose them to all things including princesses. If they like Princess movies, use that as an opportunity to talk about characteristics other than their dresses, etc and/or limit to some of the newer ones. But Disney is pretty well-loved for a reason. Beauty and the Beast is a favorite in our household with an almost 3 year old boy. He loves the songs and we sing together. We talk about how brave Belle is to change places with her father and how she stands up to the Beast when he gets angry while she is cleaning her wound. How she looks beyond the scary Beast to see the person inside. Weve also watched Brave and he likes to pretend to shoot arrows while he rides a horse. Talk about how strong Merida is. How she isnt afraid to be the best. How much she loves her family and how smart she is to know how to fish, and what berries are harmful.

Go with the energy and interests your child naturally has to teach them/talk to them/etc. Its much easier to gently change a rivers course then to stop a river.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Screen time for potty training is a bad idea anyways- princess or not.

If you really want a well-rounded child, expose them to all things including princesses. If they like Princess movies, use that as an opportunity to talk about characteristics other than their dresses, etc and/or limit to some of the newer ones. But Disney is pretty well-loved for a reason. Beauty and the Beast is a favorite in our household with an almost 3 year old boy. He loves the songs and we sing together. We talk about how brave Belle is to change places with her father and how she stands up to the Beast when he gets angry while she is cleaning her wound. How she looks beyond the scary Beast to see the person inside. Weve also watched Brave and he likes to pretend to shoot arrows while he rides a horse. Talk about how strong Merida is. How she isnt afraid to be the best. How much she loves her family and how smart she is to know how to fish, and what berries are harmful.

Go with the energy and interests your child naturally has to teach them/talk to them/etc. Its much easier to gently change a rivers course then to stop a river.

Right. I think there are great lessons for kids in virtually all the Disney princesses after about Sleeping Beauty.

Ariel — she didn’t give up her voice for Prince Eric. He was incidental to the story. She wanted a different life from her family. There’s a lot to talk about there in terms of what it means to want a different life and how to handle that. It’s something a lot of kids can probably relate to (aka not feeling like you fit in somewhere).

Belle — She’s awesome. She loves to read, rejects the hunky jock, and loves the Beast for him, despite his appearance. All of that is rewarded when she gets a wonderful life with the man she grew to love for what was inside him all along.

Jasmine — Another one who didn’t want the life she was given. She fell in love with a poor kid and actively did NOT want a prince.

Pocahontas — Great story, but obviously Disney made some really unwise and problematic choices when it came to adapting a real story. I’d put this in the “miss” column.

Mulan — Clearly amazing. Dresses up as a man because that’s the only way to serve in the army and saves her people.

I haven’t seen the other princesses canon films (Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Brave, or Moana), but I hear they show strong women. Weirdly, Elsa isn’t considered in the “official canon” of Disney princesses, but I do love what Frozen teaches about being yourself and sisterhood.

So really, in my mind, the problematic aspects of the Disney princess thing comes down to the three first Disney princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty), and the way the princesses physically look, which can create insecurities among girls. Disney has gotten better about it, but they still almost always are thin. But that’s just Hollywood for you.