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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

o think if a 10 year old read 10 books at the weekend he / she has no life?

144 replies

Dorange · 19/06/2013 16:27

And if the parent say that the child has time to do other interesting things as well as reading those 10 books on the weekend, it is a lie? And also that the whole library has been read it is probably a lie?? Unless the child is called Matilda, but I don't believe that even Matilda could read 10 books in 2 days.

OP posts:

DorisIsWaiting · 19/06/2013 16:43

DD (yr3) not an exceptional reader but loves reading could easily read 5-6 books on a weekend especially if it was the rainbow magic books (probably more).

BrianButterfield · 19/06/2013 16:44

Something like a Jacqueline Wilson or Diary of a Wimpy Kid would takes a good reader under an hour. I read Private Peaceful in half an hour recently as I wanted to know quickly whether to read it with my class, and the other Michael Morpurgos could be quick reads too. They don't have to be baby books for a good reader to find them simple to read.

NatashaBee · 19/06/2013 16:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Emsmaman · 19/06/2013 16:45

YABU, I used to read 7 or 8 short novels at that age in a day if I was home sick/weekend or whatever and I am a normally socialised adult now.

SpooMoo · 19/06/2013 16:48

Yabu. When I was ten I could read that many and it'd be my activity of choice. But now I hardly ever get time to read!

WilmaFingerdoo · 19/06/2013 16:49

Yabu. You've lifted this from a comment made by a poster on the HW webchat and made a snidey thread about it.

Bit shit really.

crazyspaniel · 19/06/2013 16:50

You're judging a 10-year old child for "not having a life"? I think you need to get a life.

Original poster

Dorange · 19/06/2013 16:50

Ooooow I never said it was a bad thing. Anyway, this was what a MNetter posted on another thread and it seemed exagerated to me. But my own daughter is younger and not a great reader (yet), so I have no clue.

OP posts:

MrsFrederickWentworth · 19/06/2013 16:50

Would you say the same ( I hope so) if the 10 yo were watching tv and playing electronic games for 10 hours? By the time you've done a bit if family tv it mounts up.

And I would swap that for reading any day

diabolo · 19/06/2013 16:50

I used to get 8 books out of the library on a Saturday and had usually read them all by Monday. I would have been around 10 at the time.

(I was allowed 8 'cos my sister was the Librarian).

I certainly had a "life" too, went swimming a lot, played out with friends, but even now, my favourite thing to do is read.

cory · 19/06/2013 16:51

Oh, this thread brings back happy memories of the days when a bag of books from the library felt like being starving hungry and having somebody shove a tray full of fresh buns under your nose. That excitement coupled with the sense of imminent fulfilment- I have never come closer to having a life!

How do you recapture that as an adult?

TwelveLeggedWalk · 19/06/2013 16:54

At that age I could have, and definitely would have, done that several weekends a year.

It probably meant that that particular weekend I didn't have much else going on, no. But I was exploring the world in my head, so I don't think I saw it that way.

I'd rather my two had more going on each weekend to keep them busy tbh, but given DD's early fascination with books I may be onto a losing battle!

zukiecat · 19/06/2013 16:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BrianButterfield · 19/06/2013 16:56

Of course, being a good or fast reader is bragging and showing off, and a sign of having no life, whereas being the best runner, swimmer or football player is very healthy and to be encouraged... Can't we all just accept some people enjoy different things?

Original poster

Dorange · 19/06/2013 16:58

And I see I used the term 'have a life' wrongly too, but I'm still learning English (no excuse). Yes, would say the same to a child who spent the hole weekend at the TV. Maybe because I take my dd out so much on Sat and Sunday, it seemed to me that 10 books were too much. I accept I have been unreasonable.

OP posts:

UniqueAndAmazing · 19/06/2013 16:58

my library only allowed 4 in the Junior library.
and you weren't allowed to be an Adult until you were 14. (you could still borrow children's books) Adults got 8 books.

I went to the library every couple of days - I met my friend on a Tuesday and also went on Thursday and Friday.
They were the only days it was open until half past 5. and I would stay until it closed.

I changed all of my books every time.

and I spent most of my free time at school in the library there, borrowing books or reading them.
We used to have a lot of plays in the school library. They were really good to read (and something that I never found elsewhere).

lessemin · 19/06/2013 16:59

Ha! only ten?

MY dd could read fourteen books in a weekend

themaltesecat · 19/06/2013 17:03

My toddler easily gets through ten books from the Hairy McClary series in a couple of hours (which is why I try to shut her in a room with my husband when she gets hold of them). Does that upset you too, OP?

You are being sad.

cory · 19/06/2013 17:04

By the time I was 10, I took myself out a lot of the time: to a tree or a ledge on a rock or the bottom of our boat. The books came too

Those were the days when I was convinced I was going to be a famous author and take people into new worlds of dreams and imagination. Well, I am writing books, but they don't perhaps exactly live up to those early expectations.

FoundAChopinLizt · 19/06/2013 17:05

I hate hate hate hate the expression 'has no life'

It is generally used by people who have no imagination who do not understand other people's choices.

cory · 19/06/2013 17:06

I should perhaps add that I am close to 50, so was a child in those days when children roamed, rather than being "taken out" all the time.

KobayashiMaru · 19/06/2013 17:11

I took my 8 year old to the library last week, he chose some books, by the time I had picked some and helped the other two with theirs, and used the photocopier and a few other things, he had finished one of the books he had chosen and had to swap it!

He's just read 5 of the Harry Potters in a fortnight as well, have you seen the size of some of them?

UniqueAndAmazing · 19/06/2013 17:16

yy Chopin.

I went to so many different countries, worlds, times; met so many people, historical and future; learned so many things I could never have fitted in (or done without supervision!); went to school with witches; visited the Queen with a giant; got sick and had to go to hospital in Kent, found an unexploded bomb; survived a nuclear explosion; travelled with the circus; befriended a lion; hung out with a vegetarian vampire; wore clothes that were too old for me and lived in a haunted house; had a dragon stay with me for weeks; lived in a house too close to the edge of a cliff, lived in a house that sailed away!; went on pirate ships and space rockets and submarines, and aeroplanes, and hot air balloons, flying cars, flying carpets; went to school in America; ate pistachios; learned to write Cursive; smashed an egg on my hair; solved murders; etc etc etc.

Try doing all that without picking up a book!

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 19/06/2013 17:20

Why would you make such a sweeping statement, OP? You're pigeon-holing. It's so tedious. You know nothing about anybody's life and it looks to me like you just want to have a little stir or maybe feel better about your own choices somewhere...

usualsuspect · 19/06/2013 17:20

I read loads as a child, but I would rather have been out playing with my friends tbh

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