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Original poster

To think bedtime stories should not be emotional?!

178 replies

Cadela · 10/06/2024 19:02

This is lighthearted!

Just read Dd the Paper Dolls and got slightly choked up at the boy chopping them up, full on holding back sobs at the memories bit with granny 😭 Trying to read a bedtime story with a massive lump in your throat is a nightmare!

The other one that does it to me is ‘The Girls’ when they all come back to the tree all grown up.

In my defence I’ve been an easy crier since pregnancy and happy to show Dd all emotions but sobbing during bedtime isn’t what I planned 😂

Is there a bedtime book that does it for you too?

OP posts:
GordonBlue · 10/06/2024 23:11

Cadela · 10/06/2024 23:00

Now this has made me tear up. So lovely

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Sorry OP!

Purplestorm83 · 10/06/2024 23:02

WonderingWanda · 10/06/2024 20:02

Probably a bit differebt to the ones everyone else has lostef but I cried when I read the Lorax to my kids the first time, it made me regret bringing children into world we are destroying.

Oh god the Lorax! I used to read that to my class as a nursery teacher with no problem, they loved it and would ask for it, I knew it nearly by heart. Then I had kids and tried to read it to them but couldn’t get through it at all as I kept crying 😭

Original poster
Cadela · 10/06/2024 23:00

GordonBlue · 10/06/2024 22:59

Yes!

Just reading your description of it has me crying. My kids are older and it perfectly captures an adult's eye view of the end of childhood. Far too perfectly!

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Now this has made me tear up. So lovely

OP posts:
GordonBlue · 10/06/2024 22:59

Cardboardeaux · 10/06/2024 20:27

The last chapter of The House at Pooh Corner ("In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place and We Leave Them There") is heartbreaking 😢

Yes!

Just reading your description of it has me crying. My kids are older and it perfectly captures an adult's eye view of the end of childhood. Far too perfectly!

tessdurbyfield · 10/06/2024 22:58

I thought it was just me! Made me absolutely weep the other day, had to excuse myself from bedtime!

upthespoutagain · 10/06/2024 22:57

parietal · 10/06/2024 19:44

Dogger. Took a lot of practice to be able to read it aloud.

Yup, I sobbed reading this to my lovely first Reception class. They were very nice to me and one patted my legs!

merryandbrightdelight · 10/06/2024 22:54

CatChant · 10/06/2024 19:35

Goodbye Mog.

Lovely, lovely book but I could never read it aloud.

I didn't know this one existed! I don't think I ever want to read it ☹️

Shhhhivegotasecret · 10/06/2024 22:54

Cadela · 10/06/2024 22:43

I’m still on the edge of tears now nearly 4 hours later.

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It was the bit for me when the girl grew up and came a mummy and made paper dolls with her little girl 😭😭😭

AmelieTaylor · 10/06/2024 22:53

Too many to recount, I'm a hopeless sobber!! Not a sweet rolling tear, total snotty snotfest!

Original poster
Cadela · 10/06/2024 22:43

Shhhhivegotasecret · 10/06/2024 22:39

I saw this thread title and before I opened it up it took me straight back to reading ‘Paper Dolls’ and sobbing all over my daughter’s head (she was too young to notice!) that book killed me - just reading the title makes me teary

I’m still on the edge of tears now nearly 4 hours later.

OP posts:
zaxxon · 10/06/2024 22:43

Once I was in the library and overheard a dad reading Goodbye Mog to his DC. He'd picked it up without knowing what it was about. I'll always remember the way his voice faltered when suddenly it began to dawn on him what was happening... then a rustle of pages as he looked ahead ... and a long pause while he recalibrated. "Keep going, Daddy!"

For us it was always The Story of the Dancing Frog by Quentin Blake. My DP could hardly get through it.

ShrinkingEveryDay · 10/06/2024 22:42

For older children, my son read Private Peaceful to me as one of his reading books from. I properly sobbed at the end and made his reading diary very soggy 😬😄

Shhhhivegotasecret · 10/06/2024 22:39

I saw this thread title and before I opened it up it took me straight back to reading ‘Paper Dolls’ and sobbing all over my daughter’s head (she was too young to notice!) that book killed me - just reading the title makes me teary

MummyCushion · 10/06/2024 22:37

Paper Dolls and Guess How Much I Love You have both got to me! So glad I'm not alone.

We have Dogger and we read it once and I honestly can't remember it, but my son didn't want to read it again! I think I may have to dig it out now.

I absolutely do not want to know a single thing about Goodbye Mog!

LegArmpits · 10/06/2024 22:37

Once There Were Giants ::shudder::

Also Tabby McTat.

Stompythedinosaur · 10/06/2024 22:32

For me it was Dogger! I just have to hear "and then Bella did a very kind thing" and I'm away!

StripyHorse · 10/06/2024 22:32

Paper Dolls always used to get me too.

I was fine with Stick Man, but when DD was about 2 it really got to her - but mainly the happy ending bit when he found his family. We hid the book away from her for a while, as she got older she was OK.

I am terrible with Disney / Pixar films though - Lilo & Stitch, Inside Out (Bing Bong!!!!!) and of course, UP.

DoYouSmokePaul · 10/06/2024 22:30

Two words: Greyfriars Bobby 🐕 💀 😭

HeartshapedFox · 10/06/2024 22:28

Stickman, at the end when he finally makes it back to the family tree.

rainbowsparkle28 · 10/06/2024 22:23

mynamechangemyrules · 10/06/2024 20:16

Oh dear, better not try Michael Rosen's Sad Book...

I can't read it aloud to my class. Just having a little weep thinking about it and the line

I loved him very very much but he died anyway

💕💕💕

I realise very different type of book clearly (!) but this reminds me of my GCSE English teacher who simply could not read out loud the last chapter of Of Mice and Men (we had been reading aloud throughout as a class), she had been teaching it for years and still got her everytime...

sandorschicken · 10/06/2024 22:22

I saved my copy of The Velveteen Rabbit for my son! This is it with my name written in! I've just read it for the first time in ages and yes, still blubbed!

To think bedtime stories should not be emotional?!
SprigatitoYouAndIKnow · 10/06/2024 22:21

I cannot read the snail and the whale. Choke up with tears every time.

When we lost a close relative, I had to p
use youtube videos of bereavement books, as I couldn't actually read the. Out loud. Badger's parting gifts and the memory tree were beautiful though.

MsJuniper · 10/06/2024 22:21

My immediate thought, apart from TPD, was:

Then Bella did a very kind thing.

Glad I'm not the only one!

choixduroi · 10/06/2024 22:15

ooh haven't read that! It feels like she was very very well buttoned up in most of her writing, but maybe it peeped out in a short story because it might have been less written to the formula of three children and a secret treasure or whatever.

PurpleFlower1983 · 10/06/2024 22:14

I knew which story you were going to write about before I opened the thread. YANBU.

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