Surviving the Domestic Jungle

As the mother of three, and at one time being a child myself, I have pretty much seen every kid movie….ever! I have to say, movies have gotten better overtime with the messages they present to children:

RobinHood: Stealing is ok

Dumbo: Drinking and racist undertones

Aladdin: “Fake it til you make it” and lying about who you are is ok

Little Mermaid: Abandoning your family and everything you know for a man is ok

Sleeping Beauty: A kiss holds the answer to everything

Beauty and The Beast: Love the ugly guy and you become a princess

That is just a few examples but my point is, the messages are not all that wonderful. Especially since ALL of them have a happy ending. This is slightly askew from reality. Life is a difficult challenge and even harder, love and marriage. I have only ever found one kid movie that I think holds valuable messages for children as well as adults. That movie is Toy Story 3. Whoever wrote that movie, got it right. The overall message of the movie is Family. Whatever and whoever make your family, you stick with them and always support each other. United, those toys were successful. Divided, they suffered. Family is number one and should always be number one. The second lesson was that evil sometimes hides as good. That strawberry smelling bear presented himself as good but really he was an angry, vindictive, lying evil stuffed animal. Sometimes in life, people who seem like they are good people, are pretending and end up being evil. This is a harsh reality but very true. We marry them, date them, give birth to them, live next to them, work for them, they work for us etc etc etc. Bad people are intermingled with good people and you must learn to not just trust everyone. You need to give people the benefit of the doubt but ultimately, some people are just bad people. Some fairytale dragons cannot be slayed and kids need to know that and quite frankly, so do some adults. The third message that I thought was fantastic was the sheer persistence of those toys. They never took no for an answer and always found their way out of a bad situation. This is possible in reality as well. No matter how trapped we feel, there is always a way out. It may not be exactly the way we want, but a way will always present itself. The thing that I loved about this particular message, was that when the toys were presented with what looked like an impossible situation, they held hands, supported each other and then accepted and surrendered to their situation. Sometimes, we just have to have faith. We need to just lean on each other, close our eyes and hope that somehow things will be ok. Not every situation in life can be fought through. Sometimes we just need to let things flow and stop resisting. Once we stop resisting, sometimes opportunities open up that we were too busy ignoring. The toys were saved by the “claw” at the moment they needed to be saved and not a moment before. Those toys went from thinking they were headed to the attic to ending up in a much better situation with a new kid. Life is full of twists and turns and never have a watched a movie that illustrates life lessons better. My daughter watches that movie daily and I am so happy she loves it. I hope on some level she is absorbing the messages the movie is putting forth whether the writer meant to present those messages or not. I do still believe all the classics are still vital to childhood and I make every attempt to allow my children to see them when they come out of the vault, but Toy Story 3 will always be the best example of life that I can show them on a level they can grasp. Its time for us to stop believing that one kiss, one man, one drink or taking something from someone will save us. It wont. We have to save ourselves first and not put all our dreams into dead ends. A kiss is just a kiss but it is magical with the right person. That right person is human and will be a pain in your butt sometimes. You will fight! You will get mad at each other no matter how great the kiss is or he is. Life is better experienced sober and everything worth having feels better when it is earned and the ugly guy is not a mealticket. Happily ever after doesnt exist but, happily most of the time does! There are other lessons and messages in the movie (like Andy not having a father) but the main ones for me, were the ones I mentioned. Check out the movie and see if it moves you as much as it moved me.