Damsel in Distress

I want to be rescued.
All heroes can apply.

I always loved fairy tales as a small girl like all other small girls. Because it gave hope and belief that when things will get tough and unbearable a Prince will come who will fight all evil and rescue the princess. So I always believed that when I will be sad or lonely or in a bad state my Prince will come and whisk me away. (Of course Bollywood films and Jane Austen novels too helped.. Mr. Darcy for a long time has been my image of the perfect hero.)
But do these fairy tales promote the correct hope?? Here I don't even want to get into the argument of whether such stories are chauvinist because the guy always rescues the gal. I believe its a mutual rescue. Because if it weren't for Elizabeth who would have taught Mr. Darcy humility?
No my question is for the basic hope it gives to young minds - when you are in trouble you will be rescued.
Is it always like that?? Are we always rescued?? Or should we be taught that sometimes help is not on the way and we should just survive the situation.. That for some Cinderellas there wont be a fairy godmother and there wont be silver slippers or even worse they might have silver slippers and they might even lose them but the Prince will not come searching, he will just go back to the ball and dance with someone else. I know its probably a depressing and negative sentiment but isn't it also practical? We need to be taught when is the time to realize that the Prince is not coming. Of course that doesn't mean he is never going to come. He will probably come the next time you are in trouble.
What we need to realize is that most of the times we are our own heroes. That we need to rescue ourselves. If our Prince doesn't come to take us out of the tower we need to let our hair out ourselves and climb down.

This reminds me of an excellent prayer that I had come across:

Dear God,

Give me the strength to accept what I cannot change

The ability to change what I cannot accept

And the prudence to distinguish between the two

And I think that's what our fairy tales should teach us, the prudence to understand when to wait for help and when to help ourselves.
The prudence of when to lose our glass slippers and when to leave before midnight.