I used to read these and at the time I had no idea either about gollywogs being black or anything like that....I just thought they were ugly mean toys
I vaugly rememember the wishing chair series and the enchanted wood and the magic faraway tree
Although to be honest I don't remember too much of the content! But again I'd read them under the covers.
I actually hadn't thought too much about what I'd read as bedtime stories as it all seems so far away
I've got some very basic brightly coloured 10 page books which are religious about the garden of eden and stuff from an Islamic point of view
And I have a book which condenses the moral values of several disney films with lots of pretty pictures edited by a vicar
But nothing else so far.
I'm not sure if Enid Blyton would really be relevent to my kids - as said Betty and Fanny etc seemed a bit out dated when I read it
But I wouldn't ban my mum from reading it to them or anything.
As for the comments about the worlds PC madness - I agree that quite a bit of it is uncalled for
Like you say though a lot of it is personal interpretation. Like for instance....when our kid asks.....he's half-cast! Not multi-cultural or multi-racial
Half-cast wasn't considered offensive (as far as I was aware) until recently and I really don't see the need to use a different term for it (unless someone who's sensetive specifically asks you to)
I must admit that although I wouldn't consider myself racist and have a lot of asian friends - I did grow up in a family with "how many paki's can you fit in a mini" type jokes
And it was never meant maliciously it was just that some of the things they did as a culture and some of the names seemed really funny....but we didn't really have anything against them as people at all!
I try to play down any racist comments at home as it can get too much sometimes but occasionally in jest if hubby does something really 'odd' or is really annoying I'll be like "pffftt...paki!
" and he'll respond with something like "...better than ghorie
" (in a really fake eastern accent)
(ghorie literally means 'pale' for a femanin object - but most asians use it to refer to white girls
)
Because they're the same...a lot of them think white people do funny things and they have their own jokes about us. But at the end of the day if there's no ill will and the jokes are private between people who aren't sensetive about it then it's ok
Just wouldn't do somat like sit in the middle of the bus and start telling them
