I just finished reading the last of the Roald Dahl books to my kids. We've read...
The Gremlins
James and the Giant Peach
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Danny, the Champion of the World
The Enormous Crocodile
The Twits
George's Marvelous Medicine
The BFG
The Witches
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
Matilda
Esio Trot
The Minpins
And they were all well and wonderful.
But here is what I was thinking...
When Peace gets older, I will want her to experience the world of Roald Dahl books as well... but I don't think I will feel like reading them to her. And same goes with all the other books I've read with my older two... the Kate DiCamillo books, the Clementine books, the Pippi Longstockings, the Lynne Jonell's, the Ivy and Bean's, and all the rest of it. (And the books Vern has read to them as well... the Harry Potters, and the Series of Unfortunate Events.)
We will have to do it all over again for Peace (and for any other kids that we may or may not have in the future). And that doesn't seem that appealing to me.
Is it just that parenting may become boring after awhile?
When you have the first kid, everything is new and exciting. Reading the old books that I hadn't read since I was a kid. Going to Easter Egg hunts and Toddler Tuesdays and trick-or-treating and all the rest of everything that comes with parenthood.
But by the third kid (or fourth or fifth), will it just seem like more of the same?
I don't know.
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6 comments:
I strongly believe that whatever decreases in attention, time and novelty second and later children experience are MORE than made up for by the incredible richness that siblings add to life and by how much better we are at parenting due to our greater experience level.
I KNEW THAT YOU HATED PANTS BASED ON YOUR PREVIOUS POST, IT IS A SUBCONSCIOUS THING...
I wouldn't worry about the books. Even though Roald Dahl is completely awesome (and if there's any point in time you don't feel like reading Matilda to a child, I firmly believe that you hate fun) there are so many fabulous children's books out there that you will never run out. Off the top of my head: C.S. Lewis, Frances Hodgson Burnett, the Wizard of Oz books, Madeleine L'Engle, Lloyd Alexander, Phillip Pullman, Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables -- the list is endless. And if you're sick of some, Peace can read them on her own, or Ocean can read them to her. It will all work out.
What Jen said is right on. And have you read Dahl's stories for adults yet? REally fun~
Kristin
Roald Dahl changed my life. Love him. I'm reading Molly The Twits right now and she loves it (thank goodness- what if she didn't?!?!) Have Ocean and Ezra read them to Peace! It is a problem though- I love Dahl, but don't want to read him 8000 times for each of my 8000 kids.
I'm not worried about the nice chapter books. It's the boring picture books that are killing me. You would think all the years between my kids would make it easier, but that horrible train book my kids love didn't improve with age. You generally only read a Dabl book to a kid once. The picture books go on heavy rotation for weeks on end. Bleaaaaaaghbhhhhhh.....
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