It’s not bad for your children to cry - Lessons from The Neverending Story

Wanting to protect our children is only natural, but, says Michael J Tinker, one 1980s classic film shows us that we’re missing something if we try to completely seal them off from tragic stories

[Warning: contains spoilers!]

I have come to realise that I have something of an aversion to tragedy in stories. I know deep down that these stories are the gourmet meal of art. And yet, when I sit down and choose a film or book to read in an evening, I’m not sure I want to put my heart through the wringer and so I often I opt for the takeaway snack instead.

There’s a beauty to the story that’s almost too painful to repeat. But perhaps that’s the issue. I fear that it will be repeated one day; maybe even with one of my own children as the central character

Here’s a case in point. I have a tape sitting in my bedside draw that I’ve never played to my children. It’s an episode of Adventures in Odyssey. I loved Odyssey as a child, but this episode made me weep when I first heard it. I was beside myself. It tells the story of a girl called Karen who contracts cancer and eventually dies. Weaved throughout the episode is hope – hope of life and eternity. It is deeply moving (no cheap kiddie menu here). There’s a beauty to the story that’s almost too painful to repeat. But perhaps that’s the issue. I fear that it will be repeated one day; maybe even with one of my own children as the central character. Given this, why would I want to put my daughter and sons through the aching pain of this drama? Why would I cause them to cry? And so I haven’t played that episode to my children.

Enter The Neverending Story

I’m a child of the 80’s but I had never seen this film. In fact I think I avoided it deliberately. There were two things I knew about it; 1. It has an incredibly ……