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What Children’s Stories Teach Us About Life

What Children’s Stories Teach Us About Life

Last updated on: January 24, 2014 at 6:17 pm by Amy Henry

What Children’s Stories Teach Us About Life 2014-01-24T18:17:06-05:00 Amy Henry

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Some of the titles in Story Mama

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The Bible says that if we are to understand spiritual things, we are to be as children.

I would like to adapt this concept for mamas: If we are to understand life, we must understand children’s books.

Let me illustrate (not literally, of course):

When you go to Barnes and Noble to buy a self-help book, you might pick a bestseller off the shelf that has the following chapter titles:

1. How to feel accepted just the way you are

2. How to take good care of yourself

3. How to find time to do what you want to do

4. Get your family to help out with these five easy steps

5. Be kinder to yourself

6. To be truly happy, give to others

And so on and so forth. But, I would argue, none of what the self-help books offer is new information. It’s been there all along, hidden inside our most beloved children’s books.

Consider how the following stories could answer the same questions:

1. How to feel accepted just the way you are (The Story of Ferdinand)

2. How to take good care of yourself (The Mitten)

3. How to find time to do what you want to do (The Country Bunny)

4. Get your family to help out with these five easy steps (Stone Soup)

5. Be kinder to yourself (The Giving Tree)

6. To be truly happy, give to others (Miss Rumphius)

From Curious George to Madeline to Goldilocks and the Three Bears, our favorite stories not only provide the best entertainment, but answers to the most perplexing life (and parenting) issues. If only we had known…

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For more information on HOW The Story of Ferdinand can help you accept your child just as he is, or how The Mitten teaches us to take better care of ourselves, check out my new book, Story Mama: What Children’s Stories Teach Us About Life, Love, and Mothering.

children's classic stories

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