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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Weeping tears and snot

57 replies

avocadoze · 29/12/2019 19:40

My children (aged 14, 12 and 9) for some reason asked me to read me some of their toddler books this evening. We started with Owl Babies, which they loved but which always made them cry, then they asked for Paper Dolls, which they loved but always made me cry. I must have been able to exercise more self control when they were little, but when I read it to them this evening I couldn’t hold back the tears. AIBU to weep every time I read this? It made Ds1 cry too. Are there any other toddler books which are so much of an emotional rollercoaster?

OP posts:
Bipbipbipbip · 29/12/2019 23:34

@DickDewy that bit in Peepo gets me every time.

I've never finished reading Guess How much I love you because I just end up sobbing.

minimonkey11 · 29/12/2019 23:35

Oh the places you will go. EVERY TIME.

kazza446 · 29/12/2019 23:38

No matter what by Debbie gliori is my heart breaker, along with guess how much I love you. I sob at most things though!!!

Dumbledoresgirl · 29/12/2019 23:38

In order to make it appeal more to my son, I made the mistake of substituting my son's favourite toy every time the Veveteen rabbit is mentioned in that book. I only realised what happens to the rabbit too late...

Kiehlingmesoftly · 29/12/2019 23:40

The Girls. my voice cracks every time I read it

Crazyhouse123 · 29/12/2019 23:41

Oh!
A friend for little bear by harry horse
The snail and the whale by Julia Donaldson
Lost and found by Oliver Jeffries

2019user44 · 29/12/2019 23:42

On the night that you were born. Combine that with postnatal hormones and it is so hard to read without crying. It’s now in my daughter’s memory box for her to have when she has her first child.

LegArmpits · 30/12/2019 00:08

Oh God, Once There Were Giants 😱
I sent that to school once with DD and her lovely teacher never forgave me!

Thenamedame · 30/12/2019 00:14

@2019user44 yep! On the night you were born absolutely ruins me 😭 Anything by that author does to be honest

DodgeRainClouds · 30/12/2019 00:28

Once There Were Giants I cant get through it without crying! My children are still quite young but I have given up trying to read it to them. Everytime I think I will be ok and then it hits me like a tidal wave!

Original poster
avocadoze · 30/12/2019 09:48

Once there were giants... I had forgotten that one. Off to have another snotty weep

OP posts:
Spacecudet · 30/12/2019 10:19

Once there were giants! I tried reading it to my Nursery class when I was pregnant and my dad was terminally ill. I was so choked up I had to pass it to my TA and leave the room. I haven't been able to read it since.

Softskin88 · 30/12/2019 21:49

I remember the film. My parents got it on video when I was about 6- my own Grandfather, who I loved dearly, was terminally ill and died a year later.

I can’t even think of the music from that film without welling up.

They probably thought they were being helpful and preparing me, but so wish I’d never seen it...

Pinkarsedfly · 30/12/2019 21:52

Oh The Places You’ll Go.
Dogger.
Harry And The Bucketful Of Dinosaurs.
Fred.

RumbleMum · 30/12/2019 22:03

Absolutely everything. I've recently finished the Chronicles of Narnia and DS had to read the end of every book as I was incoherent. It's largely because I loved the books as a child and I was overwhelmed by nostalgia.

Charlotte's Web is just bloody cruel though. 'No-one was with her when she died.' FFS.

Freid · 30/12/2019 22:06

What happens in Paper Dolls?! I've never heard of it!

DD is a bit young for stories but I'm collecting books.

Original poster
avocadoze · 30/12/2019 22:11

A kind mummy makes paper dolls for her little girl. The girl plays games with the paper dolls. A boy cuts up the paper dolls but they’re not gone, they’re in her memory. With the butterfly hair clip she lost and some goldfish and a kind granny and more and more things every day. The little girl grows up and has her own little girl and makes paper dolls for her.

It’s by Julia Donaldson, and it’s a lovely book

OP posts:
CantstandmLMs · 30/12/2019 22:19

I cry at all of them. I'm welling up just thinking about the paper dolls and that you sat and read these lovely books to your now slightly older DCs, Op. how lovely 😭😭

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 30/12/2019 22:28

We had a couple of books like this when the dds were small. One was called Always and Forever and was about some woodland creatures. They lived together as friends and then one of them went off and died. The others were sad but then they reminisce over their memories. Snot inducing but lovely.

The worst one was called Up In Heaven and was about a little boy and the family dog. The dog got old and died and the boy was sad. Then she came to him in a dream and showed him a puppy to make him happy again. After my lovely DMil died I couldn’t read that for crying. It was always sad but god it used to make me want to howl after that.

42isthemeaning · 30/12/2019 22:34

Goodbye Mog.
DD (nearly 14) and I have not been able to read that since we lost our two cats. Sad

cloudjumper · 30/12/2019 22:40

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde. OMG. I sobbed when reading this to DS.

Always and Forever by Debi Gliori also makes me weep.

Iwouldlikesomecake · 30/12/2019 22:42

I’m crying at this bloody thread and I don’t even have kids Blush

I cannot read Dogger. I have a bear that I would genuinely have been devastated if I’d lost, from the age of 1 upwards. Mum made him for me and he is in my bed now (DH is away). I am 39 Grin

tulipsaremyfave · 30/12/2019 22:46

Bob Robber and Dancing Jane- I love it!

HeyMac · 30/12/2019 22:48

Mile High Apple Pie by Laura Langston about a girl's Granny getting dementia.

Prawnofthepatriarchy · 30/12/2019 22:52

The Jolly Christmas Postman. My DC loved it so much, partly because DF was a postman - and such a jolly one. He used to dress up as Postman Pat for the fete.

He died when they were still at primary school. I can't even cope with seeing the cover. I just howl. Takes me back to a time of innocence and optimism, when postmen were far too jolly to die.