Can reading to your child really make a difference? The experts think so, and I am inclined to agree with them. However, some of the books that are often recommended for babies, seem to me, pretty scary. Either these books send the wrong message in my opinion or they are creepy. Have you come across any books like this?
One book that I have thought was creepy from the moment I saw it is Love You Forever by Robert N Munsch. Many people absolutely love this book and say it touches the heart and can make you cry. I must be from Mars or something because the book, ooh it just gives me the shudders.
The premise of the book, like all good horror stories, starts of innocuously enough. It seems to be a tale of the strong bond between mother and child, a bond that can never be broken no matter what. We open to a mother rocking a newborn baby. As she rocks, she sings a song:
I’ll love you forever
I’ll like you for always,
As longs as I’m living
My baby you’ll be
This is very sweet, of course. As the baby grows and become a little terror, the mom still comes in to rock him and sing the song. The little boy gets older, grows from toddler to teenager and the mom starts sneaking into his room at night to rock him. While this is disturbing enough to me, the thought of sneaking in to pick up and rock a teenager, it really gets scary when the little boy becomes a man. The mom sneaks across town and uses a ladder to climb up to his window and sneak in so she can rock him once more.
While I love to cuddle and rock my babies, I can’t imagine breaking and entering when they become adults. And if my mother-in-law suddenly climbed up into our bedroom and picked up my husband to rock him, I would probably call the psychiatric hospital.
The ending of the book is sweet, when the man goes home and rocks his own little baby, but I just help wondering if he will one day form the same creepy dependency.
What do you think?
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. Starting June 1st, don’t miss her articles in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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