She's only 4, right? She didn't hear what we said....yeah right!

When I first started showing Isabella, our oldest, our most favorite Disney movies and classics, we had a blast...We enjoyed them so much and since Alan is so into animation and character design, we all love having these movies on. The music and characters are amazing! Then, Isabella started talking...she also, ironically, started listening, repeating, and soon after asking questions. Up until now, I guess I was watching these movies "unconsciously" and not noticing their language or actions. Once I began seeing it through the eyes of my 4 year old, I started really hearing it and hearing her "take" on it. First, they have some really mean characters. Not just scary, but mean. They use words that I have vowed to "watch" and try not to use in our lives ie. idiot, stupid, hate, etc. Also, they have running themes that I'm not sure anyone really thinks about unless you are writing a paper on the film. Well, Isabella started to notice a running theme and asked me one day, "Mommy, why don't many of the Disney Princesses have mommies??" She also noticed this in Shirley Temple movies. I was really shocked that she noticed and also wasn't sure what to tell her, were they working, dead, not home, shopping??? I didn't know what to say at that moment...

Now, once my brother asked me when I began monitoring and moderating people's speech in front of my girls, "When did you become such a priest?" meaning he has heard me use this same language, but now all of a sudden it seemed unacceptable...I said, the day I got pregnant and then gave birth! I felt I would love to have them surrounded by only love and teach them a way to speak that would make them feel good. I know I can't moderate everything, but at least I could ask this of our families...It's amazing, I mean our children are truly more aware than some of us even at 4 and I was pleased to see she was actually thinking and not just in a tv "coma", however, it has made me much more conscious of what we do let them watch. So I have added tv to our list of "things to be more aware of" and now we try to let her watch things that would inspire her, educate her and best of all make her and her sister feel great! (at least when possible)