How the Story, Frozen, Relates to Real Life,

And why you might want to give it another watch…

Ideally, every parent is kind, loving, emotionally intellectually financially mature. Ready and excited to have children. Even more ideally, we live in a world where extended family, the community, and everyone, exhibits a sense of love, acceptance, nurturing support, shared effort and responsibility, etc. towards each other and every child. But I ask you, is this the case?

As much as we might not intend to hurt our children, sometimes we do.

Raising kids is hard, I don’t have to have had my own to know that is true. I grew-up in a large family and felt like I helped raise my nephews. Being the inquisitive youngest, I observed and learned a lot. Hopefully it is fair to say that most of us do the best we can with the information & experience we have at the time.

Good parents try really hard, but they are still human — much like King Agnarr (father) Queen Iduna (mother), Elsa and Anna’s parents from the Disney movie Frozen.

Life of adulthood is busy, complex, challenging, and sometimes chaotic. Now, let’s add not just a spouse, but also kids into the mix. In today’s fast-paced world where you do your best just to ‘keep up,’ important things tend to slip through — like quality family time.

People have less and less time with more expected of them — often times with less appreciation too. Because of this, they are more and more stressed. Who suffers? The family, and the individual(s). Relationships suffer. Health suffers. Time & Quality are often both sacrificed — and not where they ‘should’ be (I know, I get it. Where, how, when, what do you cut back when there are bills to pay, mouths to feed, things to do…)

Parents work hard to create a good life for themselves, each other, and their children, but again I ask:

Really, it is the same amount of time, it’s just how you spend it. Time is a resource, a commodity. It has value. So much so, that we buy peoples’ time. Think about it, do you get paid to spend so many hours doing certain tasks, like work? We place a price not only on peoples time, but also their perceived (and sometimes proven) skillset. There is a fixed amount of time in a day, week, month, year. How we allocate our time is up to each one of us, and it gets tricky. Many of us have very full lives, perhaps too full — I just hope they are also meaningful and fulfilling to ourselves and one another…

So what does any of this have to do with a children’s movie? (which let’s face it, Disney movies have way more meaning for adults, it’s just a way to entertain, and perhaps teach, our children…)

If you have seen the movies, you know that Elsa has a gift, power, and the source of that is unknown. In an effort to protect her little sister Anna as a child too quickly hopping from snow pile to snow pile (Elsa’s gift), Elsa accidentally strikes her sister. In an effort to protect both their children, the parents make choices based in fear. Fear is a wonderful and necessary emotion, like all our emotions; however, it can be dangerous too. Fear is contagious.

In an effort to please her parents and protect her family, perhaps on her own but definitely in response to her parents, Elsa becomes very secluded and fearful of her gift. She withdraws. She is scared and unknowingly angry — which comes out in the, apparently highly controversial, song Let It Go.

Elsa was traumatized and ‘damaged,’ not only from the experience in general, but also, and more importantly, her parents reaction/response to the incident. (Anna’s memory was altered so she was ‘saved’ and harmed too) Relationships were sacrificed, and time was stolen.

Now, it’s not all on the parents — they were doing the best they could. They were loving caring parents, who followed the advice, guidance, of Magic Trolls (it takes a village). The ever philosophical and inquisitive person I am though, cannot help but wonder … how else could this have turned out? Every action we take, every decision we make, has a chain reaction of possibilities — always begging the question, what if…

In the end, Elsa and Anna turn out remarkably well; which, can and does happen in real life too, but how could it have been different or better? How would the series of events that transpired, altered if the parents chose to embrace and love her gift as she had in the end? How would things have changed if they spoke to Anna about being more careful? Why was it all on Elsa’s shoulders? What if, what if, what if…???

We all struggle with making decisions each and every day, often multiple times a day. Some obviously large important even life-changing decisions. But what if the small, seemingly insignificant decisions are the ones that truly matter? If you could know how a choice would affect your tomorrow and alter your future, would it change the way you live your life and how you make decisions?

Aaaaaah, I could go on and on and on and on… but I guess what I am trying to say is to be aware of what we put our energy into. Being aware of how important time is and how it affects our lives, choices, relationships, and opportunities. Being aware of what we feed ourselves and each other … fear or love, time or absence? How do you want to put yourself out into the world? What kind of an effect do you want to leave behind? Etc.

Thank you all so much for reading and I hope it inspires positive changes for yourself and others. When you can, give yourself a break and trust that you are doing the best you can at the time — do the same thing for someone else too, if and when you can. We are all only human.

With love light blessings, and a prayer for a brighter happier healthier tomorrow…

Your Idealistic HolisticNerd ~ Mind. Body. Spirit/Soul. ~

If you enjoyed, please follow and help spread the love. I would love to gain 100+ followers and fulfill a lifelong dream of being a successful writer. This is my 50th story on Medium. I hope to inspire and help people however I can. Your shares, claps, and followings are all helpful and appreciated! By no means do you have to sign-up for a membership on Medium, although I love mine. You can still follow, clap, and read up to 3 stories a month for free! Thank you and Blessings 🙏🏼