Fairytales Turn Into Scarytales

Traditional fairytales are being ditched by parents for more modern stories because they are to scary for their children.

Research revealed one in five parents has scrapped old classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Rapunzel in favour of more modern books.One third of parents said their children have been left in tears after hearing the gruesome details of Little Red Riding Hood.And nearly half of mothers and fathers refuse to read Rumplestiltskin to their kids as the themes of the story are kidnapping and execution.Similarly, Goldilocks and the Three Bears was also a tale likely to be left on the book shelf as parents felt it condones stealing.

The survey of 2,000 adults was commissioned to mark the launch of the hit US drama GRIMM, which starts tonight at 9pm on Watch, and sees six gritty episodes based on traditional fairytales.The poll found a quarter of parents polled wouldn't consider reading a fairytale to their child until they had reached the age of five, as they prompt too many awkward questions from their offspring.And 52 per cent of the parents said Cinderella didn't send a good message to their children as it portrays a young woman doing housework all day.

Steve Hornsey, General Manager, Watch, said: ''Bedtime stories are supposed to soothe children and send them off to sleep soundly.''But as we see in GRIMM, fairytales can be dark and dramatic tales so it's understandable that parents worry about reading them to young children.''''As adults we can see the innocence in fairytales, but a five year old with an over active imagination could take things too literally.

''Despite the dark nature of classic fairytales, as we see in GRIMM, good will triumph over evil and there is always a moral to the story.''When it comes to bedtime reading, over a third of parents don't like to tell their children about 'The Gingerbread Man' as he gets eaten by a fox.And 'Queen Bee' features a character called 'Simpleton,' which 35 per cent of mums and dads deemed unsuitable.

The study also found two thirds of mums and dads try to avoid stories which might give their children nightmares.However half of parents said traditional tales are more likely to have a strong moral message than a lot of modern kids' books, such as The Gruffalo, The Hungary Caterpillar and the Mr Men books.