family togetherness, tolerance, hard work and persistence are healthy for young minds. On a more general note, themes like love, happiness and self esteem are always in vogue for young children.
However it is easy to flood young children with unrealistically ‘up’ books. Why is this bad? Well, something that most parents don’t remember is that the schoolyard is not a peaceful, happy place. It is filled with tensions, conflict and resentment. Jealousy, anger and hatred are encountered on a daily basis. This is not a bad thing. Children need to learn how to deal with negative as well as positive emotions if they are to grow into healthy and esteemful teens.
So buy books that are happy and ‘up’. But don’t be afraid to let children have access to material that deals with conflict. Age appropriate conflict. Blowing people’s heads off is not age appropriate content for a ten year old (it’s not age appropriate for any age really). Age appropriate story morals deal with the types of conflict that children might really encounter. Schoolyard settings where child characters deal with and resolve their problems are the sort of conflict based stories parents should be seeking.
Stories that deal with real schoolyard conflict can help children by giving them mental models of how to deal with that conflict. Children are often confused by their own emotions and the emotions of others and reading about them can be a great way to take control of their lives. Parents should protect their children from the adult world. But they must also realize that children need to fully experience the world of children in order to grow up. The good side and the bad side of the world of children.
So we as parents need to monitor and filter the media our children are exposed to. But there is no need to pretend to your child that the world is all sunshine. Allowing them access to age appropriate conflict stories can be a great way to build emotional maturity in the young person you care about. Just make sure you balance these with story morals that deal with the positive issues too.
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