Witches and Ghosts – The Misinformation We Spread to Children

Every Halloween season I take out my plastic pumpkins, fake spiders and skeletons. I bring out the decorative orange and black and find my stack of spooky children’s books. I get prepared for the holiday that many consider dedicated to witches. 

As a witch, you would think that Halloween is my favorite season, but that is just not the case. Instead, I actually find Halloween rather annoying. This annoyance has become double these last seven years as I’ve been a parent because I find myself continually correcting the information my daughter is presented with in stories and children’s shows.

It started with witches. The vast majority of content for children portray witches as mean and evil, and if not that, they are green. This is just not the case. I do not want my daughter thinking that her mother, a witch, is an evil person. I also don’t want her to think that witches are fake or that they must somehow have green skin. 

Then there is the issue of ghosts. Soooo many children’s stories use ghosts as the “spooky” creature in the plot. The plot then develops into a tale of telling children that they should not be afraid of ghosts because ghosts aren’t real. Ugh. I hate this one. This is just a blatant lie told to children to make them not afraid to go to bed at night. But we should really just give them the actual information about ghosts. 

Instead of telling children that ghosts aren’t spooky because they aren’t real, we should teach them that ghosts aren’t spooky because they are on a different dimensional plane and that they actually have energetic control over any ghosts that come to bother them – of course not in this language, but that general gist.

We should give our children – and really all people for that matter – the power and control to realize that they are not subject to anything “scary” that they can’t see and instead they actually have the power within them to control and protect their space using the power of their mind and intention. 

So this little rant of a post is basically my frustration at continually having to stop stories we read or shows we watch to explain to my daughter that witches are not inherently evil and that ghosts are real. Realizing this, I also see how this information being spread so widely through children shows, has allowed it to become inherently a part of the culture and society we live in (at least here in the US) that embeds this misinformation and fear in our belief system and thus making it harder to overcome as we get older. 

I have only found a few books and shows over the years that treat witches and ghosts in a positive light. Perhaps my favorite is the Suddenly Supernatural series written for the middle grade level (but entertaining for adults as well). I am excited to read this series with my daughter in a couple of years as I like the message it conveys about the spirit world and your ability to control how you perceive and deal with it. 

Do you know any books that treat witches or ghosts in a correct manner? I love any recommendations!