Children's Stories.

When you read a children's story as an adult one of two things can happen. One, you find out that it was a quality work of fiction that worked on more than one level and give you something new as an adult rereading it for the first time since childhood. Story like that are rare, but worth while if you find them. The second option is for the the story to be poorly written with an either poor or just bizarre moral lesson. We are here to talk about the second kind of stories.

"Green Eggs and Ham" is a classic Dr Seuss story that nearly everyone knows. However, when reading it as an adult you find it has a bad message. The message is that if you harass someone long enough they will give in and do whatever you want. This is not a good message for children, if it were to sink in just imagine how they would annoy you for ever little thing. It makes one wonder if this is the strategy Dr Seuss used to make his woman do certain things.

Longer stories can be just as bad. "Matilda" by Roald Dahl is a story about an abused, but highly intelligent, little girl and her struggles in childhood. Rather than show a realistic way for her to deal with her problems, we get a fantasy. It teaches you that all your problems will solve themselves, and you will get super powers for your troubles. Problems don't solve themselves, and no one has ever had super powers given to them through neglect (or at all for that matter).

The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein is another fine example of a story with a lesson children should not learn. It teaches a fine lesson about finding someone with no self-esteem to take advantage of repeatedly. The boy in the story never get punished for his leeching ways, and no one should be taken advantage of to the extreme that happens in the story. Now if the tree would of fallen on the boy when he chopped the tree down for lumber, that would of been a good lesson for kids. In that situation kids would of learned everyone has a breaking point.

There are many children's stories that have good messages for kid, and that can be enjoyed by adults. Sadly, the bad ones seem to be far more common.