How a fairy tale can raise a child

There are fairy tales for children who are afraid of the dark and doctors, fairy tales for hyperactive or aggressive kids, fairy tales for those who eat a little or cannot wake up at night to go to the toilet. Depositphotos.com photo

Where do fairy tales come from today? They are composed of fathers and mothers, grandparents, brothers and sisters. Hedgehog Andrei "was born" a very long time ago, in that distant time, when I myself was about five years old. Instead of “Cinderella” and “Little Red Riding Hood,” I tormented my mother with a request to tell something about a hedgehog. And my mother strained imagination, trying to come up with another story about the adventures of a prickly baby. Almost half a century has passed, and a new hedgehog was born, very similar to an ordinary boy from an ordinary family. I called him Hedgehog Andrew, gave him everything that a hero from a classic fairy tale therapy was supposed to have, and he healed his life.

Andryusha's family turned out to be wonderful. Here, mom and dad try to listen to the opinions of children, look for non-standard approaches in solving family issues and do not dismiss children’s problems as irrelevant. Here, they warmly and carefully treat each other and always rush to the rescue. And no matter who to whom - children to parents or parents to children. It is clear that a bad "boy" simply cannot live in such a family. And let Andryusha occasionally get into difficult situations, he comes out of them with honor and dignity.

This is exactly how I wanted to see my grandchildren - honest, open, kind, not putting their own interests at the forefront. In general, living a full, rich and beautiful life in all respects. But it turned out that within my family alone Andryusha was too crowded, and the fairy tale began to travel. First through friends and acquaintances, then the chapters began to be published in newspapers: in Latvia, and then in California, in Sacramento, in the Diaspora newspaper. And when Andryusha stood firmly on his feet, he even had his own brokerwhere parents and grandparents can download and read healing and educational tales to their kids. After all, it is much easier to use the example of a hedgehog to tell what greed and laziness are than to say: they say, again you, Masha, do not share your sister.

Fairytale therapy, in fact, although fashionable, is not at all a newborn science. It has been known as a method of psychotherapy for thousands of years. Fairytale therapy is a way of nurturing a child’s special attitude towards the world. The attitude that is accepted by the society in which the child grows up. Fairytale therapy is one of the simplest and most reliable ways to convey to a child the necessary moral norms and rules. But this mission is not embedded in all folk tales. Therapeutic or educational fairy tales are written according to a certain scenario in order to turn the fairy tale into a tool for the development of the child. In the process of listening to fairy tales, fantasy and creativity should not only develop, but also the basic mechanisms of searching for and making decisions on life problems should be learned.

Therefore, a fairy tale can be selected as a medicine. There are fairy tales for children who are afraid of the dark and doctors, fairy tales for hyperactive or aggressive kids, fairy tales for those who eat a little or cannot wake up at night to go to the toilet.

Why fairy tales are so attractive to us from an early age was explained by Sigmund Freud in “Totem and Taboo”: “Magical thinking is the belief about the possibility of influencing reality through symbolic mental or physical actions and/or thoughts. Primitive man has enormous confidence in the power of his desires. In essence, everything he does magically must happen only because he wants it to.”

If you yourself want to learn how to write therapeutic fairy tales, remember that their main task is to offer the child a new experience and a new solution to the problem. You shouldn’t say bluntly, “Eat your vitamins, it’s good for you,” “Turn off the lights before going to bed, it’s not scary.” You can tell a fairy tale in which a stunted tree was watered with magic water, and it became strong, or a boy was given a magic candle that could not burn, but still drove away all fears, as if it was burning with a bright flame.

In therapeutic fairy tales, it is important that the child likes the hero. Then you will soon be convinced that he takes a positive example from the hero of the fairy tale. And in parting - a fairy tale for those who want to instill in their child such a trait as neatness.

Photo ejik-andrjusha.com

How Andryusha learned to dress correctly

- Leave this jacket alone! - Said mom Andrews when he began to gather in the store. - It is not enough that the whole is stained, so also the pocket is hanging on a thread.

- Nonsense! - Andryusha did not agree. - Just think, a couple of spots. I'm not a girl to think about clothes. It is they who pick and choose: oh, I don’t wear this dress, it is wrinkled; oh, on the skirt the seam is gone; ah, this bow is not for me! And I am a future hedgehog, I should not worry about trifles.

“So do you think clean and tidy clothes are nothing?” - asked mom.

- Of course! No, Mom, I understand that you are a hedgehog, and you have to think about clothes, and why?

- There is no need, then? - somehow mom smiled slyly. “Okay then, put on your jacket, but then don't complain.”

Andryusha joyfully pulled over himself, let him tacky and, frankly, dirty, but such a favorite jacket, took the bag and went to the store. On the way, he decided what he would do afterwards, but his thoughts were interrupted by someone's laughter. Andryusha turned around and saw two slightly older jokes of him, who were quietly discussing something and giggling. Seeing that they were being watched, they immediately fell silent, but as soon as Andryusha turned away, the laughter resumed.

“And what was so funny they saw?” he thought and suddenly heard one of the hedgehogs whisper to the other: “Look at his pocket - it’s dangling like an old rag.” Andryusha began to turn his head in the hope of seeing this funny pocket, when suddenly it dawned on him that the hedgehogs were talking about him. The hedgehog blushed deeply and sped up, hoping to break away from the mischievous girls.

“Just think, we laughed,” he reassured himself. - They are hedgehogs, what can we take from them?! They laugh with or without reason. The hedgehogs wouldn’t even pay attention to my clothes.” But there was no way to calm down. As luck would have it, there were a lot of hedgehogs and hedgehogs on the street, talking and some laughing. And it seemed to Andryusha that they were all laughing at his torn pocket.

Finally, he ran to the store, hoping that his troubles would end there. But they were just beginning. Firstly, the guard at the entrance somehow looked at him very closely, and then followed him, keeping an eye on him, as if Andryusha was some kind of thief. Secondly, one hedgehog took the last pack of his favorite cookies from under his nose, saying: “Such a dirty guy doesn’t need to buy sweets, but soap with powder!” And finally, when Andryusha stood in line at the checkout with his purchases, the saleswoman was in no hurry to serve him. She looked at the hedgehog with pity and asked:

- What, poor thing, live alone, without a mother?

- Why without mom? - surprised Andryusha. - And with mom and dad, and even with brother and sister.

- Yes, what mother will let her son on the street in such clothes? Only the most mismanaged!

- Not true! My mother is very economic! - Andrew was offended. - I myself am guilty, I thought that hedgehogs don't care what to walk in, so he put on his favorite jacket.

“Yes ...” the cashier sighed. - Not only that everyone looks at you like a mess, they also think that you have such a mother too. It turns out that you not only let yourself down, but the whole family.

Andryusha paid for the purchases, put them in a bag and, with his head bent low, left the store. He was so ashamed that he went home along a different road - although it was longer, there were hardly any passers-by there. He quietly slipped into the corridor, took off his shoes, took off his jacket and threw it into the drawer by the washing machine. And then he took the food to his mother.

- Mommy! - he began solemnly. - Excuse me please. You were completely right. Real hedgehogs, of course, should not spend hours spinning in front of a mirror, but walking dirty and sloppy is also bad. I promise you to take care of your clothes and try to always look neat.

“Little hedgehogs do not always succeed,” Mom laughed. - But let's hope that you are an exception.

More tales about Hedgehog Andrew can be read on his personal Online.