stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2010-10-01 11:12 pm
stevenpiziks) wrote2010-10-01 11:12 pm
Mackie and Bedtime Reading
When I got home from picking up Sasha, it was nearly Mackie's bedtime. He wanted a story, and we'd FINALLY come to the end of the Awful Sappy Storybook from Hell. Someone--I don't know who--gave either Aran or Mackie this book of bedtime stories, and the book looks nice on the surface, but a pattern quickly emerges as you read these things aloud: they're all limp, insipid, and sappy. Everyone is just =so= kind and helpful, and everyone =always= learns a proper lesson.
One story really bugged me. A little pig gets tired of her littermates always climbing over her in the mud puddle, so she goes off and creates her own puddle to enjoy in peace and quiet. But one by one her littermates wander by and join in, until the new puddle is just as crowded as the old one--but the pig doesn't mind. She's realized it's no fun to be alone. The end.
WTF? What kind of message is that? You can't ever want some time to yourself? There's something wrong with you if you don't want your siblings crawling all over you every moment? All the stories are like this, but for some reason, Mackie adores the book and insisted I read every eye-bleeding story, one after another. All one hundred of them.
Anyway, yesterday we finished the final story. Mackie wanted to start over from the beginning, but I drew the line and told him to pick out a different book from the multitude on the shelf. He desperately needs exposure to something else--and so do I. So he picked out a chapter book about a bunch of kids who discover the local librarian is actually Merlin the magician. I read chapter one to him, and it was much better than stories about pigs and their siblings.
One story really bugged me. A little pig gets tired of her littermates always climbing over her in the mud puddle, so she goes off and creates her own puddle to enjoy in peace and quiet. But one by one her littermates wander by and join in, until the new puddle is just as crowded as the old one--but the pig doesn't mind. She's realized it's no fun to be alone. The end.
WTF? What kind of message is that? You can't ever want some time to yourself? There's something wrong with you if you don't want your siblings crawling all over you every moment? All the stories are like this, but for some reason, Mackie adores the book and insisted I read every eye-bleeding story, one after another. All one hundred of them.
Anyway, yesterday we finished the final story. Mackie wanted to start over from the beginning, but I drew the line and told him to pick out a different book from the multitude on the shelf. He desperately needs exposure to something else--and so do I. So he picked out a chapter book about a bunch of kids who discover the local librarian is actually Merlin the magician. I read chapter one to him, and it was much better than stories about pigs and their siblings.