Telling My Babies a Fairy Tale
The standard fairy tale usually starts with "Once upon a time" and usually ends with "and they all lived happily ever after." The majority of us have heard or heard of at least one. A person is usually very young when they first hear a fairy tale and tends to want to believe that it is true.

I can remember hearing the stories of Cinderella and Snow White at a very young age. I'll spare the details since these stories are widely known. The retelling of such classics would only lose something in the translation so I will spare you. I remember as a child wanting to live in one of these fairy tales. What could have been more perfect?

I mean the main character usually goes from being poor, feeling unloved or alone to being loved by many. The main character gets what they want the most at the end of the story.

What happens after the end of the story though? Did the prince stay with his princess? Did the family that formed stay together? What about the children; where there children?
The answers to such questions would lead to second story. It has in some cases. These are the lesser know versions of fairy tales and sequels to them.

How many of us find ourselves telling our children bedtime stories? How many of us when they are too small to comprehend skip reading the story and read the pictures to them? Some of you may know what I mean, some may not. We create a fairy tale within a fairy tale. If the people in the picture are children playing that is what the page says in our version in an attempt to speed the story up and get sleepy babies to night- night land.

There have even been times when I found my self putting the story book away. Children get distracted if the story is the same every time and bored when they know the story before you read the part.

I would then begin to tell my children a story that stared them as the main character. I took the beginning inserted their name and set it in the place that they wanted to be the most. I would then insert a few things they like to do and continue to the happily ever after. I mean after all they are only children, they don't need to know that it isn't always happily ever after.

Learn more about this author, L. Beall.
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