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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Children choosing reading ....

45 replies

Itsjustafleshwound · 15/09/2010 18:46

I am a 'snob' in that I like to have a say in what my children read.

My DD (5) has just being introduced to the Rainbow Fairies series and I just don't think I could BEAR having to read them ... she has a bookcase-full of better written and more imaginative stories! I have suffered through the turgid Poppy Princess books ...

AIBU to refuse to read them to her ??

OP posts:
Original poster
Itsjustafleshwound · 15/09/2010 19:43

Thanks everyone for your input!

It is as bad as I thought - I am going to have to acquaint myself with the Harpies from Hell aka The Rainbow Fairies and look like I am enjoying it !

OP posts:
DandyDan · 15/09/2010 20:01

As soon as they can read themselves, they can read as many Rainbow Fairies as they like. We had a bundle but I never read them aloud. If she can't read herself, I would alternate reading a Rainbow Fairy book with a different book; or I might say "let's make October an animal month and reads books with animals in", then go back to a couple of fairy books in November. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. And when she's older and if she enjoys reading on her own, then you make the terms on what you read to her. She can read anything else she likes herself.

Easywriter · 15/09/2010 20:26

Ooooh yes, Dandy I'd always be prepared to read something else.

Pointydog I think so but she writes numerous other books too so it's hard to know if Flower Fairies alone would keep her in Jimmy Choo's.

Galena · 15/09/2010 21:34

When I was about 8, I was a real Enid Blyton fan. My teacher told me I had to alternate EB with a different author. To be fair, I was reading the Hobbit at 6 so I was always an avid reader, but I just went through a phase. I did as my teacher asked and alternated books. However, I already read pretty much anything to DD (17 months) but one book I refuse point blank to read is 'Guess how much I love you'. I hate it. it's One-up-man-ship (sorry, one-up-nutbrown-hare-ship) gone mad. If she wanted me to read it I would, but I'm just keeping it hidden for now! Grin

I guess I would read fairies, but encouage other books too.

Easywriter · 15/09/2010 21:53

I would not read "Guess how much I love you" tonight and tomorrow night!!!

Nurgh!

taffetacat · 15/09/2010 21:59

Count yourself lucky. Try reading football books every blardy night. Ooh lets learn all about some random Argentinian bloke. Whoopee flippin do. But its reading, hey.

MaMoTTaT · 15/09/2010 22:03

oh yes - I see the post about reluctant readers.........I spent many an evening/weekend sat listenig to DS1 reading the backs of DVD's and PS games, not to mention the car adverts in the papers........

Thankfully my boredom seems to have paid off and he reads all sorts to himself now

motherinferior · 15/09/2010 22:03

In principle, I sort of support my children's right to read crap. In practice, I find that the rainbow fairies make me want to kill quite a lot of people in the vicinity so are probably best avoided for the sake of the Greater Good.

DandyDan · 15/09/2010 22:46

taffetacat, if your son (an assumption there) is into football, Mal Peet has written some good books about a South American footballer (fiction).

mumeeee · 16/09/2010 00:12

YABU. If these are the books she wants you to read to her then you should read them

Fennel · 16/09/2010 09:37

YANBU. Read what you like and say firmly 'That's the sort of book for you to read to yourself next year'.

Rainbow Fairies is meant for small girls to read to themselves, to get them into reading. Like Enid Blyton, Horrid Henry etc. They are fluff to get them into reading for themselves. I don't see it as my role to read tat to them, there are so many good books around, I see it as my job to extend their experience of books, not go along with the lowest common denominator.

motherinferior · 16/09/2010 09:40

I rather like Horrid Henry Blush. There is a formulaic quality to the writing which has a certain pleasure to to my (admittedly warped) mind.

The other thing is that the RF are absolutely terrible writing, stylistically and what have you, so you can see it as your Pedagogic Duty to eschew them.

PatriciaHolm · 16/09/2010 09:51

My DD (6) adores the Rainbow Fairies too. DH says they make his head hurt when he reads them to her Grin But we do read them - reading to children is as important as getting them to read themselves, so we do a mixture of both. We read lots of other things too - think of them as a minor ingredient in a whole recipe!

Fennel · 16/09/2010 09:54

Oh well (super smug emoticon), I have 3 dds aged 6-10 and have not been exposed to the inside of a RF book. dd1 and dd2 weren't fairy types. dd3 is currently reading them and I'm just relieved she's finally reading books with more than two words on a page, but I have no intention of reading them to her.

If DP or I read to the dds they get E Nesbitt or "when Hitler stole pink rabbit" or Michael Morpurgo or Sherlock Holmes. Things they might not have found for themselves.

pointydog · 16/09/2010 19:39

Reading the Hobbit at 6? Give over.

Galena · 16/09/2010 20:14

Yes, pointydog. I was reading the Hobbit at 6. I probably didn't understand much apart from the bleedin' obvious, neither, probably did I finish it, but it was not beyond the scope of my reading ability at the time.

Apparently I taught myself to read at 3 by watching over my dyslexic brother's shoulder while he was trying to read to my mum and saying 'That says such-and-such' I must've been a nightmare really, but yes, I was reading the Hobbit at 6.

desertgirl · 16/09/2010 20:31

Galena, was about that age when I read the Hobbit too - but then there were a couple of old ladies in the village who used to get me to read the paper as a sort of performing seal type trick; 'look what she can read'. I think in both cases a fair bit of the content probably went over my head.

The only book I have actually hidden was a ghastly Barney one. If DS and DD were able to read to themselves, I wouldn't have hidden it, but it would have driven me completely insane so decided it was the safest option. Haven't actually met any rainbow fairies yet though....

maresedotes · 16/09/2010 20:35

Count yourself lucky she is into Rainbow Fairies. My DD1's school reading book at the moment is Jacqueline Wilson's "Suitcase Kid". Awful. I don't mind explaining about parents splitting up (my DD is 8) but I object to explaining what "dirty slut" means.

pointydog · 17/09/2010 10:43

ah well, you see I don't really count it as reading if very little is understood.

desertgirl · 17/09/2010 16:06

Pointydog, I don't think that in my case "very little was understood", I enjoyed the story - there is a big difference between suggesting that "very little is understood" or thinking that a fair bit of content may well not have been fully understood.

Rather as a poem I had to 'do' at school at 12, and again at 16 somehow acquired a whole new sexual meaning between the first go and the second; does that mean that we weren't actually reading it the first time?

It's all assuming, anyway; have not read the Hobbit for years.

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