The brilliant Albert Einstein states, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." There are some parents that disagree with this famous scientist’s words of insight and refuse to read their children fairytale stories. Twenty-five percent of parents surveyed said that they would not read their children fairy tales due to them being too scary or not teaching them a good lesson. Tara Graetzal, a writer for Storify, states, “Although fairy tales may seem fun and innocent from the outside, they are teaching children false ideas about love, gender roles and concepts of good versus evil, which can lead to problems later on with extremely high expectations, depression, body image issues and an unreal look on life.” If someone asked a teenager why they suffered from any of the issues that were just mentioned, I do not believe their response would be, "It was because my parents read me fairytales when I was a kid." The parents that believe that fairytales cause children to become unhappy are forgetting to look at the positive uses of the stories. They play an influential role in child development.

Reading fairytale stories to children boosts their imagination. Albert Einstein once again notes the importance of creative thinking by saying, “When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract.” Once a child’s imagination is sparked, it can guide them in defining themselves as individuals.

Fairytales can aid a child in learning. The writers of fairy tales based their story settings in various locations all over their world and allowed their characters to come from different cultures and backgrounds. This teaches a child about diversity, showing that the way that their household goes about life may not be the way another household does. And fairytales do allow people to make mistakes, allowing the children to see imperfection. This will help them develop critical thinking skills, helping them decipher what wise and unwise decisions look like based on the outcome of the choice that was made in in the story. Good versus evil is presented in the stories, letting them know that the world is not always nice. Shelia Kohler from Psychology Today inputs with, “Having split good and evil so completely and satisfyingly the child can identify with the good hero or heroine. He/she can beat his way valiantly through the thick forest to rescue sleeping beauty or magically acquire the carriage, grand dress and glass slippers to enchant the prince. The child can identify with the small, the weak or the downtrodden (little Cinderella, sweeping the hearth, for example) who, in a gratifying reversal, is able to overcome the odds and triumph, marrying the prince. These tales thus permit both the expression of natural violence and at the same time preserve that essential part of life without which the child cannot prosper: hope.” Many fairytales teach young ones what love is really about, and that is sacrifice. Ariel, the little mermaid, left her whole family to be with the one she loved. Prince Phillip risked his life while battling a dragon in order to reach Sleeping Beauty. Belle surrendered her freedom by taking her father’s place as the Beast’s prisoner. Anna threw herself in front of her sister, Elsa, so that she would not be killed. The Child Reach website states, “The term ‘And they lived happily ever after’ does not fool children that there is eternal life but reassures them that forming a truly satisfying bond will give them emotional security. This and similar terms can be reassuring for anxious or fearful children.” The magical stories do not instill a false hope; it only allows children to access success stories. And success is finding someone to love and loving them wholeheartedly, whether it be a spouse, a family member or a friend and where there is love - there is always something learned, a moral to the story, if you will. Sometimes there are happy endings and sometimes things do not fall into place as we had hoped, but either way, the experience shaped him or her into what they needed to be today.