One of A-chan's christmas gifts from friends made us stop in our tracks and begin to analyze some of our decisions about what she can and cannot be exposed to. The present was a set of Disney princess figures. Their girls were delighted with them and started playing with them immediately whereas A-chan went, "hmm. Here, you can have them." That was because she had no idea what they were - she'd never seen a Disney movie, had no clue who any of them were and though she thought they were pretty she couldn't tell why the other girls were so fascinated with them. Her obvious confusion sent us a very clear message. Although we have a very strong aversion to Disney and almost all of their products, it's not fair for us to keep A-chan totally ignorant of something that is pivotal in the culture of America's children. We don't want her to feel excluded from the things that other children are excited about, even though we personally can't stand the things...
So we sat down and watched Mulan with her (or rather Ketu did while I cooked) so that she would have some frame of reference for the gift and be able to socialize at least in some part with the other girls. We might eventually introduce other Disney films (and I'm sure that at some point we will have no say in everything that she watches...) but for now we are going to stick with the one where both parents are alive and together. However, so as to provide more culturization for her we will probably be reading the books about some of the other princesses. But we want to avoid most of the films for as long as is humanly possible. Our objections being that A) in most of them there is no true sense of family and not even both parents, B) the violence inherent in these films is abhorrent and gratuitous, C) they are waaaaay too loud to be broadcasting in our house and shouting at our two year old.
In the same vein we have a Midwinter tree, which is a christmas tree that we renamed :) Even though we are not Christian and do not wish to participate in Christian holiday traditions...I don't want her to feel excluded from something that all of her friends and acquaintances from here on out will be experiencing. So we intend to keep some of the more secular parts of the American 
midwinter holiday such as the tree and santa while we also celebrate Pancha Ganapati. I hope that this will give her a sense of belonging when the traditional decor comes out all over the country instead of making her very very confused. There is also a personal reason to keeping the tree and santa/snowman decorations - that I remember them fondly from my own childhood and I don't think that I could give them up. There is nothing better than a beautiful lit tree in your living room during the darkest part of the year.
So we sat down and watched Mulan with her (or rather Ketu did while I cooked) so that she would have some frame of reference for the gift and be able to socialize at least in some part with the other girls. We might eventually introduce other Disney films (and I'm sure that at some point we will have no say in everything that she watches...) but for now we are going to stick with the one where both parents are alive and together. However, so as to provide more culturization for her we will probably be reading the books about some of the other princesses. But we want to avoid most of the films for as long as is humanly possible. Our objections being that A) in most of them there is no true sense of family and not even both parents, B) the violence inherent in these films is abhorrent and gratuitous, C) they are waaaaay too loud to be broadcasting in our house and shouting at our two year old.
In the same vein we have a Midwinter tree, which is a christmas tree that we renamed :) Even though we are not Christian and do not wish to participate in Christian holiday traditions...I don't want her to feel excluded from something that all of her friends and acquaintances from here on out will be experiencing. So we intend to keep some of the more secular parts of the American 
midwinter holiday such as the tree and santa while we also celebrate Pancha Ganapati. I hope that this will give her a sense of belonging when the traditional decor comes out all over the country instead of making her very very confused. There is also a personal reason to keeping the tree and santa/snowman decorations - that I remember them fondly from my own childhood and I don't think that I could give them up. There is nothing better than a beautiful lit tree in your living room during the darkest part of the year.
