Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to be shocked at new survey re children and books?

178 replies

mrscoleridge · 08/12/2011 17:17

New survey out seems to suggest that 4 million children do not have a book at home. AIBU to think this is completely unbelievable especially when cost is mentioned. I thought libraries were free and that you can pick up books for next to nothing on ebay/charity shops/second hand on Amazon etc. Our literacy rate is near the bottom of the table in Europe and no wonder; bet lots of theses households have Xbox and all that twaddle etc.

OP posts:
CardyMow · 09/12/2011 01:21

Do people genuinely have a home without books? Is that even possible? Counts books in direct view of Laptop...22 baby board books for DS3, DS1's half-read David Walliams book, DS2's beast quest adventure book, DD's wand erection thing , 3 paperbacks, today's newspaper and the Kindle.

I would feel, I don't know, wrong if I was living in a house without books. And I DO struggle to afford them - but it would feel weird, and almost empty, to be living in a house I didn't share with books.

Thinking about my friends' houses, though - I can only think of ONE out of at least 20 off the top of my head, where there are books around.

No books?

MayaAngelCool · 09/12/2011 01:21

Shengdan - I don't much like your own fairy story about stealth boasting on this thread! Wink

witherhills · 09/12/2011 05:42

I'm not surprised that people don't read, I know a few educated people who don't read for pleasure.
What I am surprised about is children who do not know what a book is.
I remember commenting on a book with no words and the nursery worker said it's good for children who have never seen a book, I was Shock

It's very very sad

TartyMcFalalalalalalalalarty · 09/12/2011 07:16

Yes yes yes, people genuinely do live in homes without a single book. Perhaps it's because I'm an English teacher that this doesn't shock me.

Can't believe the number of responses starting 'well in my house there are hundreds of books. Yes, and ...? We know that many, many MNers value books, value coherent written expression, value education. We also surely know from the flicker ticker lolz sites, that many don't value some of those things in the same way (education the exception, I hope!) Frankly it's the norm for kids, even in a 'good' school not to read anything outside the classroom.

gamerwidow · 09/12/2011 07:24

I don't think you can take not seeing books all over someone's home as a sign that they don't read. I have a very small shelf of books in my bedrrom and a bookcase of books in DDs bedroom but if you were to visit my house you probably wouldn't see them and would think we are book free.
Despite a very small at home library I do go the the library once a fortnight to get new books for me, DD and DH so you can't infer how well read I am by what you see on display.

greenbananas · 09/12/2011 08:13

I love all the boasting on this thread Grin

Of course all of us lovely MN mums read with our children!

Maybe books are getting outdated and reading is now becoming 'digital' (will the Kindle and other forms of screen-reading replace books in the same way that ipods and hard drives have replaced records and CDs?)

Many of the children I mentioned in my earlier post also did not have a computer in their home. This is perhaps more of a serious problem for them than not having any books (especially as they get older and much of their homework is to research things online).

gamerwidow · 09/12/2011 09:20

No I think children need books more than computers. Gadgets such as Kindle etc. are great when you already have a love of reading and I wouldn't be parted from my eReader but physical books are needed to develop a love of reading the first place.

My 16 months DD loves the tactile experience of books i.e. physically choosing a book, turning the pages, pointing at the pictures, lifting the pop up flaps. It is from these first explorations with books that I hope a interest in the stories themselves will develop. I don't think you can simulate this with a computer.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 09/12/2011 09:58

DS1 struggled with reading. I genuinely believe that having books around that he could pick up and that we could read to him helped because he could practice a bit every day. Now he is Y4 and reads for pleasure.

I think when reading is a challenge for a child if they are not presented with regular opportunities to read and be read to for fun (rather than for school) reading can become a chore to be avoided. However, poor reading will hold back their educational attainment.

cory · 09/12/2011 10:28

littleducks Thu 08-Dec-11 20:42:26
"I'm not sure about the methodology, when I wasabout 12 we had to fill out a really long questionnaire about drugs and as it was anonymous and we were bored and hyped up several people put that they were taking class a drugs regularly and other silly, untrue answers."

we had the same except that the survey asked if we would know how to access drugs- as we all knew that one person in the school probably did have this knowledge, we all ticked the yes box- which was then interpreted to mean that we all had access to drugs; of course, the vast majority had no intention of ever asking this person how you got to a drug dealer Grin

but it didn't look good in the survey

Laquitar · 09/12/2011 10:31

You all have books in the loo and stairs? That's nothing.

We have books in the fridge (piles of books in a huge American-style fridge), i like reading a line of Sartre when i get the salami out. Come and beat this. Grin

And we've got two high piles of books outside (in case mnetters walk past our street) on each side of the entrance, instead of buxus plants. [winner of the thread]

cory · 09/12/2011 10:32

I have become even more suspicious of surveys since a recent one at work where were asked to grade recent changes in the workplace between very positive impact to only slightly positive impact: there was literally no way of stating that the impact had been negative (as it had in my view)

I notice on the frequent surveys done on the MN forum by students that they almost always ask leading questions, of the type how worried are you by child raising in our media obsessed culture- where you literally do not get the option of saying my child is not greatly exposed to media obsession

so I would want to know first:

how was the sample selected

what exactly were the questions asked

what were the implications for people who did not tick "no books"- e.g. did that mean they had to do a longer survey (missed playtime?, looked less cool in eyes of their mates)

did the other boxes cover every eventuality or might some people have ticked this as none of the other boxes described them either

Laquitar · 09/12/2011 10:33

And what littleducks said too.

Adversecamber · 09/12/2011 11:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ButHeNeverDid · 09/12/2011 12:01

One of my very distinct memories from primary school was being asked in some sort of survey "How many book do you have?".

I replied "20" because it sounded like a big number to me Grin

I remember telling my mother this when I got home and she said "But you have many more than 20 books" and low and behold when we went to my bookshelf to count them, I did have far more that 20 books.

.... Because of this memory, I am always very cynical about these surveys.

MrsJAlfredPrufrock · 09/12/2011 12:05

Perhaps they were the third of children who own Kindles?

wahwahwah · 09/12/2011 12:06

How can they not have books? Doesn't every child get the book start packs?

MrsJAlfredPrufrock · 09/12/2011 12:23

My son once told his teacher he lived in a house with fourteen generations of his family and none of them, except him, could read or write. And he (5) had to cook all the dinners and do the online banking.

wahwahwah · 09/12/2011 12:28

Pretty impressive going for a 5 year old!

pranma · 09/12/2011 12:36

I was horrified-books are such a vital part of growing up even in this age of technology [I have a Kindle and about 3,000 books].All my dgc have full bookcases and spillovers-they love Winnie the Pooh,Wind in the Willows etc as well as all the lovely new books.Every Christmas and birthday I buy a book as well as another gift.It is so sad.I grew up in a working class home in a NE pit village in the 40s/50s and I had books of my own.my parents read.Surestart give free bags of books to preschoolers at local libraries-it must surely be a decision by parents not ignorance.

SardineQueen · 09/12/2011 12:45

This survey was published a while back as well and there was a thread then.

I didn't believe the results then and I don't now. I wonder how the questions were phrased etc.

Astronaut79 · 09/12/2011 12:45

I'm not shocked at all. I've lost count of the times kids in school have told me that the only books they've ever read are the ones we're reading in school. Quite sweet (although also sad), when a hulking great 16 year old just sits with mouth slightly ajar because they're enjoying being read to so much.

I, of course, have a house full of books and have been reading to DS since he eas tiny; in fact, he's got his own bookshelves under mine in the living room. I fully expect him to be last in his class to learn to read and to hate books thereafter, thus rendering my efforts useless.Xmas Grin

Peachy · 09/12/2011 12:46

Books are wonderful things: if we go camping first thing we do with the boys is find a bookstore and buy the 'holiday book' each- it is treated as a celebration and the boys have responded to that as they got older.

The biggest factor though IMO in ds1 and ds2 going from delayed readers needing input to keen readers and having reading ages above their own even with their SEN / SN is Dh taking up reading for leisure: it's gone from being something I do when I get a chance to being a standard evening activity and as such I think it is a shame when parents don't pass that gift.

However with libraries closing etc it won't get better.

giveitago · 09/12/2011 12:51

I'm unshocked - this is nothing new. Quite honestly if I didn't have money to buy books my ds wouldn't have access to them as I wouldn't have time to take him to a library (for those that still have them in their area).

It's common everywhere. I've been going to my mil's home for 18 years (overseas EU) - I've never seen a book or mag or newspaper in her home - ever. Same with sil and all dh's family. Just 24 hour tv. But they can read and write - they got this at school.

seapie · 09/12/2011 12:53

Are the surestart book packs still happening? A few years ago everyone seemed to get one, but now our local health visitors have run out. I'd assumed they'd gone the same way as local library funding etc. Our library is now down to a few hours a week, and all the story telling sessions have stopped.

I think books have become less important to lots of children now. I teach secondary pupils and it's amazing how many of them don't know how to use a factual book (I've met several GCSE and A level students who didn't know how the index at the back of their textbooks worked!).