Does your DH (or male DP) read?

[Sunshinebuttercupsrainbows]

I am really enthusiastic about literacy and put a lot of effort in over the years to expose my DS to books. He’s nearly 7 so is now at an age where I can lounge around reading in peace whilst he’s awake without constant interruptions! My DP is also an avid reader of graphic novels and this seems to have rubbed off on my son who loves his comics. DS is reading well above his age expectations with the right comprehension levels for those texts, despite numerous neurodevelopmental disabilities.

It made me think about something I read once, which said that fathers who read have the most impact on whether their sons read.

Now whilst I’m a bookworm, I’m not someone who thinks that people who read are in any way superior to those who don’t. Each to their own and so many non-readers have skills and hobbies far more thrilling than mine. But it makes me happy that my son is growing up with two parents who he sees choosing to read.

But there is really only one other friend of mine who is a father that I know reads a lot, and given the influence it can have on their children, I guess I just wondered if my experience of the men in my life not being readers was normal or not?

No real point to this post, just curiosity!

My DH doesn’t, but my adult DS does. I’ve always encouraged my kids to read at bedtime, to turn the phones off.

Yes mine does. We're both avid readers and read to dd before she was even born! She loves reading as well.

Yes, dp is an avid reader.

Reading books IMO is a hobby like golfing, or playing the guitar. I know a few people who like it, myself included.
Consuming written material in general... plenty. DH and I have very intense, technical jobs and we're always reading technical articles, books, etc. So are many people, and it's a male dominated profession. Therefore all these men must count in the 'reading' stats.

I don't have much time to read for pleasure anymore, because I'm reading all of the above, but I do find the reading discussion interesting. I wouldn't really count 'graphic novels' as reading (i love comics as well myself), there are many video games with more text, why do those not count too then? It's the same thing, just interactive instead of words and pictures on a page.

Yes mine does. He likes history and engineering books mostly, but also fantasy novels sometimes. My son also loves reading (year 9 in school so I'm glad as heard it often falls off in secondary).
My daughter isn't so much but she struggled to hit her stride with that skill so I'm going there's still chance she'll find something she loves in reading.

We do now we have more time but never did when the children were younger.

Non of my children are big readers but it’s not really something I think is important these days.

My father was a reader. My mum was not. I'm a reader (but I'm female so maybe that doesn't count for the purposes of your hypothesis).

ExH rarely read anything but the newspaper despite having a professional involving reading and writing. All of my DCs are readers, though DS and one of the DDs didn't read much at all until age 10-12.

Yes, my DH is a prolific reader and has at least 2 books on the go at any time.
He buys most of his books from charity shops and has a massive library of mainly fiction. He studied Literature at University and writes for a living.

He takes the piss sometimes because I listen to audiobooks whilst doing other things rather than sit and read a print copy. 😂

My DH doesn't, but he listens to lots of audio books. DS used to read loads as a child but has gotten out of the habit in his teens

My DP is a reader and we have quite a lot of crossover in the books we read. My son, who is profoundly autistic, bucks the stereotype in being an avid reader of all sorts of fiction.

H reads as do I, him probably more than me nowadays. DSs both read and were book obsessed right into their teens. DS1 is autistic and doesn't read do much as an adult but DS2 (also an adult) still reads and buys books but less likely to read fiction nowadays.

We both read to the boys a lot as babies and toddlers, really up until they preferred to read themselves. They were advanced readers once they started school.

I was told by a teacher that research showed that children who were read to as infants and toddlers left ahead in reading skills by years once they started reading and that advantage continued. Children who hadn't been read to/had access to books never caught up.

@NDWifeandMan you make a very valid point - I do count graphic novels as reading (I have read quite a few myself recently) but then I’d count text heavy gaming as reading too. In fact I’m fairly confident my son learnt most of his reading from Minecraft! I also count audiobooks.

Nope not at all!

My DH is a big reader so is my dad and brother.

My XH reads and has an impressive bookcase. I used to be an avid reader when younger and read to my kids loads.

I have one DS that reads a lot, including ridiculously hard books (think philosophy, politics etc). The other has never picked up a book outside of school 😩

It's pot luck, OP!

@BigBoysDontCry reading aloud to children is apparently a bigger indicator of later life success than whether or not they attend a private vs state school!

My current DP reads a lot. My ex-H does a bit but not nearly the same amount. DP and I will happily go to bed early to read or sit around on a Sunday afternoon with everyone reading. DCs also read a lot and at least some of that must be modelling (although I always read as a child and we’ve read together since birth). With exH they play a lot of video games and watch TV. DD finds it rather boring she confesses but can’t read well with the TV on all the time in the corner of the room so gives in to the screen. He once took them away in a hotel and for some reason DD and DS had packed one book between them (and not even brought their kindles) and ended up reading it three times each! I think I would have at least took them to a supermarket and grabbed a couple more!

Neither of us read for ourselves when the kids were small though...who on earth has time when they're little?!

Mine does (as do I) but DS hasn’t caught the reading bug (yet…). My dad read pretty constantly but my brother wasn’t really a bookworm. 🤷‍♀️

@PerfectYear321 my housework standards are low 😂 buys me more time to read!

No, but I do x

Haha fair enough then.
I've found the study I think, there are a couple here's one example:
https://www.firstfiveyears.org.au/early-learning/why-reading-with-dad-matters

While I think the sex-based role model theory sort of holds true (boys taking after their fathers) I also think that a dad who reads with the kids is an indication of good shared parenting and leads to better development of the kids - if they measured other developmental stats they'd probably find those too.

It would be interesting to see a study focusing on the impact of parental demonstration of various cognitive skills. not just language and literacy, but say spatial reasoning.

As a child I helped my dad build stuff and had lots of legos, I have good visual ability (although not as good as numerical and verbal reasoning) skills. Both Mum and Dad did the reading and stories.

Yes, he reads loads! I used to buy less so these days. He reads one book at a time, I have 4 or 5 on the go and it’s a while since I finished anything…

We both read to DD every day, she’s 4 and she’s obsessed with books and will “read” to herself every morning. She’s memorised quite a few and reads them to the baby.

DSS is a teen and very into his books, factual mostly, great big tomes about history. He and DH have always discussed books.

I think it’s really important. My parents were and still are big readers and we all talk about books often.

The author of the Percy the park keeper books (I’ll look it up) is doing lots of work encouraging dads to read. Heard him on the radio and he’s great.

My DH reads and so do I. All three of our kids are avid readers - as in read a book in a day avid.

We have always read to them and DH especially loves reading to them with the voices

Yes, DH and I both read in bed every night before going to sleep and we both read bedtime stories to our DDs. I think it's really important.