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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to feel uneasy about my son reading Enid Blyton books

767 replies

frances5 · 22/06/2007 22:10

My son wants me to read him a book called the "Wishing Chair", I have read two chapters of it and it has a pixie in it called "Chinky". To make it worst the drawing of "Chinky" shows an elf like creature with slitted eyes. However I think my son is totally and utter oblivous to this.

Admitally Enid Blyton lived 50 years ago when people didn't know better. But do you think I am making a mistake letting my son enjoy this book? He is even trying to read it himself that he is so desperate to know what happens next.

When my son chose this book I had no idea that it had a pixie in it called "Chinky" other wise I would have diverted him towards something like Ronald Dahl.

OP posts:
TheArmadillo · 23/06/2007 20:56

I quite happy to go on your bikeride - as long as I don't have to ride a bike

I think you talk sense Q.

'Political correctness gone mad' is one phrase that sends me into a spitting rage

Desiderata · 23/06/2007 20:59

I guess that's us out on the Bristol meet-up then

kimi · 23/06/2007 20:59

I can only go from what I have experanced so please don't all jump on me.
When DS1 was born [he is now 11] DH1 was working at the house of a west Indian lady that he had worked for quite a few times, and this lady could knit like there was no tomorrow, she knitted for the local hospital prem baby unit, red cross, and other things and she was good at it, she also knitted toys, and she gave DH1 a gift for DS1 ...it was a golly. She saw DH1 was taken by surprise on being given this and she told him DH1 it is a toy, no more no less, I knit them because I will not be told I should find a knitted toy offensive.
I must admit it was never taken out of our home but it lives with all the other outgrown toys in the loft,

collision · 23/06/2007 20:59

Did this thread kick off?

Couldnt be bothered to read it all.

We love EB here and DS is enthralled by the characters etc

Get a life Quattro!!

Nightynight · 23/06/2007 21:00

[shakes head smiling gently]

TheArmadillo · 23/06/2007 21:00

D - if I cut out all the people I disagreed with I wouldn't have any friends left

or should that be

NikkiBFG · 23/06/2007 21:00

The Bristol meet up looks to be very interesting

I won't order ginger beer....

Quattrocento · 23/06/2007 21:01

I don't get the google point. We are meant to conclude that the inventors of google (who are pretty good blokes) liked Enid Blyton. Er so what?

Desiderata · 23/06/2007 21:01

..... Like a noddy dog

kimi · 23/06/2007 21:03

DP has ask me to ask how you ladies feel about Alice in wonderland and Lewis Carroll?

rhubarb90 · 23/06/2007 21:03

It seems quite simple really - if he's young enough for you to be reading books to him and you don't feel comfortable using a name in the book, change it. When I read long books aloud to my DS I occasionally change words to make them easier for him to understand. I don't really see the difference. And as it has been pointed out several times, whole generations of people have grown up reading EB books and have managed not to end up as racists. It's not something one picks up from reading books.

NikkiBFG · 23/06/2007 21:04

Kimi - offended at the mad hatter as insulting to people with mental health probs.....

Nightynight · 23/06/2007 21:04

lol I beg to differ d - you come across as just bursting with suppressed aggression.

kimi · 23/06/2007 21:04

Well said R90

Quattrocento · 23/06/2007 21:04

Hello Collision. My oh my. Floored me, that argument. Absolutely floored me. I may not be able to pick myself up to go on the bike ride now.

Get a life, eh? And do what with it? Read EB? Nope. I am sticking to my own life. Tis better. I don't have to read junk fiction in my own life.

Desiderata · 23/06/2007 21:05

We'll be OK, Armadillo. I assume you're thick skinned ...!

kimi · 23/06/2007 21:05

LOL nikki it could also be seen as crule to cats, flamingos and roses!!

Desiderata · 23/06/2007 21:06

Mumsnet is junk fiction.

kimi · 23/06/2007 21:06

Lewis Carroll was a dirty old man by all accounts

Desiderata · 23/06/2007 21:07

And Nightynight. I'm sorry, but when it comes to you, my aggression is not remotely suppressed. In fact, I'm almost certain I called you a twunt only last night

I'm comfortable in my own skin, thanks.

Quattrocento · 23/06/2007 21:09

Yes but i like Mumsnet because it offers something that junk fiction does not offer - which is an encounter with other realities.

sweetjane · 23/06/2007 21:11

Not read whole thread but don't deny your son any of her books if he is enjoying them - I loved her books as a child, and still dip into them when I'm feeling lazy. I think I always knew she was an old bigot really, kids are smarter than you think.

kimi · 23/06/2007 21:11

If you ladies don't stop fighting I shall have to tell nanny, and there will be no ginger beer for any of you so there.

JoshandJamie · 23/06/2007 21:12

Quattro - the google point was merely made in jest. Apologies, I hadn't realised we were being VERY serious. Will endeavour to keep my arguments far more fact based here on in.

PS - I still want to eat a google bun. Sue me

Quattrocento · 23/06/2007 21:13

And Alice in Wonderland is a serious book for children. All sorts of weighty issues in there, did you but know it. And yes, LC was a dirty old man but so what? The books are not insidiously paedophiliac. A sort of mirror image to EB in fact.

She wrote pap which is insidiously racist but led an entirely virtuous life by all accounts. Since succeeding generations are left with the books rather than their writers, history is being kinder to Alice than it is to any EB junk.