Mr. Brown can Moo...

Great book if you are learning to read. Let it be said that I love Dr. Seuss. He is one of my favorite authors. That being said, his early reading books can wear on a parent when you read them over, and over, and over....

At some point every parent has a fantasy about what they would like to do to certain books....



Unfortunately not only is destroying a book a crime (morally at least), I do believe it is probably some form of child abuse.

It is kind of amusing to me really. My son has these two books. Mr. Brown can Moo can You. By Dr. Seuss and The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth. The Dr. Seuss book is meant for early readers, so the words are simple one - two syllable at most. It's mainly sounds..."Mr Brown can sound like a clock he can TICK he can TOCK" The Gingerbread Man has an actual story line and each page has many, many words. Granted, there is rhyming so it makes it easier to read. That being said, I would rather read this more 'difficult' story over and over then read Mr. Brown one more time. No joke. Its not just that book, I hate reading Goodnight Moon (yes I do). I know grandparents and mothers of older children all go 'aww I love goodnight moon...I remember reading it to my children..." yeah do you remember reading it over and over and over? How about The hungry hungry caterpillar? Yeah? These books are enriching in their colors, shapes, words and the worlds created by very talented children's authors. They are repetitive, boring, and down right mind numbing to a parent. Well to this parent. Does this make me a bad parent? Does it make any parent bad if they hate something their kid likes? I mean if you are a Uber girl and you have a son, does it make your horrid if you hate cars and trucks? I don't think so. No where is it written that being a parent means you automatically love what your children do. In fact I would say it is perfectly okay to down right loath certain things. (think teen years with music and clothing....)  Being a parent means you put your kids first.

Selfishness isn't part of being a parent. So if your kid wants to read Goodnight Moon....again...you read it. You muster up the enthusiasm even though you can recite it in your sleep. You build city's and train tracks when you would rather play with dolls, you watch Little Bear when you would much rather watch Dexter.

And you pray...you pray that someday your child will want to read something with a plot....like Horton Hears a Who....









As a final note, am I the only parent who rather spend an extra fifteen minutes reading a 'real' story to my child then reading a quick nonsense story? I'd like to think that I am not alone.