Old post, but worthy of reposting… The Little Red Hen (Revised)

Ok, so I wrote this on an old blog and I wasn’t able to import my old entries to wordpress….  This one is worthy of a re-post.

The Little Red Hen (Revised)

I can remember my father reading me “The Little Red Hen” when I was a kid. He use funny voices for the cat and the duck and the pig and made my brother and I laugh. It was with much fondness that I purchased a copy for the Doodlebug when he was nearing a year old. And he loved it. I eventually made up a melody to sing the words to so that I wouldn’t be bored from the repetition.

But wouldn’t you know, that Little Red Hen is one passive aggressive little fowl! I mean really – she keeps asking her so-called friends (who seem completely dissinteresed) to help her, without any indication that she’s feeling the least bit annoyed by their refusal to help, and then whammo, when they come for a slice of bread she hits them with a whack of stored up resentment. You can hear the snide-ness in her voice when she says “no! weeee will eat the bread!”

It got to the the point where I couldn’t stand to read (or sing) the ending anymore and had to engage in some literary revisionism. Now that the Wee Bear is getting into story books, I have to review my alternate endings.

I always thought that if the Hen could just make it to a couple of therapy sessions she might have concluded with something like, “No, I’m sorry Cat, Pig and Duck, but I’m feeling resentful right now because I put a lot of work into this loaf of bread and don’t want to share it. In fact I shouldn’t have asked if you wanted some in the first place.” There. She takes responsibility for her actions and feelings. My Sons get a nice lesson in naming emotions rather than a lesson in anger and manipulation.

Or, the Hen could be up front about her expectations when she asks for help. Instead of asking obliquely “Who will help me…” why doesn’t she name names? “Hey, Cat, if you want some bread later, why don’t you help me plant these seeds, huh?” Suddenly I’m teaching my kid about being direct, planning ahead and negotiation.

Or sometimes, I just let the lazy friends get some of the Hen’s bread. “Sure, says the Little Red Hen, we will all eat the bread! But you missed how I grew the wheat, cut it, threshed it, ground it and made bread out of it all by myself. It was the coolest thing. I am sure proud of my bread! Another slice, dear Pig?”

Not that reading the actual ending will turn the kids into huge giant ogres. I made it out of childhood ok. Now where did I put that self-help book I was reading?

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