Why Junior Needs to Be Scared

A Tweet from Jen Robinson pointed me at this lovely article from the Boston Globe, titled When We Shield Our Kids from Scary Stories, Who Are We Really Trying to Protect? It looks at parents who gloss over scary parts like the death of Babar's mother, and experts who discuss why it's important to allow kids exposure to scary things at a young age.

Fave quote, about why kids aren't so disturbed by the loss of fictional mothers as the mothers are:

the very fear that they’re dealing with is something that they just keep re-experiencing, and then they metabolize it and are then able to manage those feelings.

Yes. YES. This is the same reason that I maintain Go Away Big Green Monster is one of the finest picture books of all time, because it doesn't ignore the monster. It confronts, acknowledges, and overcomes, and isn't that what we want our kids to be able to do with the horrors of the world?