What We Can Learn From Our Children

We can learn so much as adults from children’s movies. The next time your child begs to watch the same movie’ again’, pay attention to the content, it just may be portraying the very message that you want your children to learn and also yourself.

Let’s take for example Walt Disney’s movie “Chicken Little”. This classic children’s story is redone to fit modern times and is full of modern day issues that we all experienced as kids to one degree or another. Chicken Little is put into the box as a complete dork and feels that there is no way out. He is constantly ridiculed for his beliefs and likes and his only survival tools are the few friends that he has that are also outcasts. Chicken’s father is overly critical of him and has made him feel that he can never measure up to his far reaching standard’s or his past accomplishments. Daddy is living in the past glory of his High School athletic standouts and is disappointed that Chicken Little is nothing like him. This in turn constantly sets poor Chicken up for failure in his father’s eyes. Does any of this sound or feel familure to anyone?

Next we have Foxy Loxy who is the typical “mean girl” of Chicken Little’s class. She is the girl who picks at anyone with a weakness just to make herself feel better. Foxy is the ringleader to Goosy Loosy, who in turn is such a follower, so desperate to be liked, and so afraid to be on the receiving end of Foxy’s taunts, that she will do the fox’s bidding at will. Foxy is the thorn in Chicken’s world and the epitome of insecurity. Once again, we all either knew a Foxy or we were Foxy.

Now, Chicken Little breaks out of his constraints and proves that he is “somebody”. The little guy wins the baseball game, saves the town from destruction, finally has approval, but more importantly an apology and affection, from his father, AND gets the girl all in the course of about 60 minutes. Foxy changes her ways and becomes kind and caring from fear of her life. Goosy Loosy doesn’t change and is zapped from the planet.

What you may ask do we learn from all of this? Well, if you are a “chicken little” bust open the box you were placed in and be free to be yourself. The first rule of acceptance from others is self acceptance first. So what if you were considered a nerd in school, we are all adults now and should be on a level playing field. Besides, embrace the dorkiness inside of you, for nerds rule the world, jocks reminisce. Leave the parent issues behind if you can. The issues were always theirs in the first place and they pushed them on you, so push them back to the rightful owner and move on. If you were or are a “foxy” then take the quote “today is a changing day” to heart and change! You might be surprised at the happiness that life has in store for you when you change not only your behavior, but your everyday outlook. If changing is not on your agenda, then be prepared to be “zapped” from people’s lives as they grow and evolve and don’t want your toxic behavior in their lives. Lastly, if you were a victim of a “foxy”, try to forgive and forget and hope that the “mean girl” grew up to be a “nice and kind girl”—if she didn’t, just give her a zap!

Always remember that today is indeed a changing day and we can all make the world a better place if we just remember to stop a moment and see through the eyes of our children.