In another thread there was much discussion of how parents who pretend with their children that the princesses are real deal with the fact that more than one cast member plays each character. Some parents make what I'd call heroic efforts to make sure that their child isn't disillusioned.
My wife and I were talking about this last night, and now we're very curious about how other parents handle the subject of "real" princesses.
To us, princesses seem a little different that some other Disney characters in that they are, in a sense, historical (in the case of Pocahontas, literally so). So how does a parent who wants to keep the "reality" of a princess intact deal with the character's historicity? If your child was studying history and asked "is this when Sleeping Beauty's dad was king?" how would you answer? Do you, at some point, make clear that "reality" and "Disney reality" are two different things?
All of this came to mind because my wife worked at Renaissance Faire when she was a teenager, and there were some people working there who treated the place like the real world (they wouldn't discuss "back stage," etc.). Because the Faire had some characters who were playing real people (such as royalty), you had an odd situation in which a parent might tell their child that they had met Queen Elizabeth and encourage the child to believe it was true. To us, this seemed odd.
I don't want anyone to think I'm being disapproving or flaming or anything -- I'm really just curious. From the time he was very young, our son was only comfortable with Disney characters, Santa Claus, etc. if he knew they weren't real. Once he did, he could play along just fine (and, at age 7, still does). Because of this and because we don't do the "pretend it's real" thing with our son, this is just plain outside of our experience.
Thanks a bunch!
--Dominick
My wife and I were talking about this last night, and now we're very curious about how other parents handle the subject of "real" princesses.
To us, princesses seem a little different that some other Disney characters in that they are, in a sense, historical (in the case of Pocahontas, literally so). So how does a parent who wants to keep the "reality" of a princess intact deal with the character's historicity? If your child was studying history and asked "is this when Sleeping Beauty's dad was king?" how would you answer? Do you, at some point, make clear that "reality" and "Disney reality" are two different things?
All of this came to mind because my wife worked at Renaissance Faire when she was a teenager, and there were some people working there who treated the place like the real world (they wouldn't discuss "back stage," etc.). Because the Faire had some characters who were playing real people (such as royalty), you had an odd situation in which a parent might tell their child that they had met Queen Elizabeth and encourage the child to believe it was true. To us, this seemed odd.
I don't want anyone to think I'm being disapproving or flaming or anything -- I'm really just curious. From the time he was very young, our son was only comfortable with Disney characters, Santa Claus, etc. if he knew they weren't real. Once he did, he could play along just fine (and, at age 7, still does). Because of this and because we don't do the "pretend it's real" thing with our son, this is just plain outside of our experience.
Thanks a bunch!
--Dominick
That they aren't real. I was heartbroken. So now I have to keep him quiet so he doesn't ruin it for everyone else. He already went around telling the neighborhood kids and his brothers that Santa isn't real. 
So Christmas eve I made him put out milk and cookies and a carrot and in the morning he was SOOOOOOOOOOO excited to see if santa came and ate them. So maybe it's not too late for him. 
) do know that the characters are in costumes and everything, but when we are in WDW, when we see Goofy, Mickey, or even a Princess, that's what we see. Goofy, Mickey, a Princess, it never even dawns on us that they are people in costume. We both act like 5 year olds, we get so excited when we get to see characters. 
And I hope it stays that way for a very long time. I'm never growing up! 
