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AIBU?

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Original poster

I object to my son being given reading books about drunk horses

140 replies

Reallytired · 19/12/2007 17:23

He is five years old and reading stage 6 of the Oxford Reading Tree. He was given an ORT book called Rotten apples. Its about a horse which gets drunk by eating rotten apples.

My son has no concept of what it means to be drunk. He leads a sheltered life and for the time being I want to keep it that way.

I wrote in his reading record that I felt that the book he was given was not age approipate. His teacher has written back that it is impossible to know whether reading books that are sent home are age appriopate or not.

Personally I think this is bollox.

OP posts:
FrannyandZooey · 19/12/2007 18:27

No don't get me wrong, I like you very much indeed

but if we had first met in RL we would have turned our noses up and thought we had nothing in common

you don't get the same opportunity to bond over pissing about randomly in RL, well I don't anyway

Blandmum · 19/12/2007 18:27

Obviously the teacher should be taken outside and flayed.

Her wounds should then be doused with salt to rub in her Grave Error of using a book from a well known and approved teaching scheme.

She should be reported to the head, the board of governors, the LEA, the government, queen and possibly God.

3JinglesandnoBells · 19/12/2007 18:27

this just reminds me of a book I gave my dh's cousins little girl a couple of years ago...the cosin had just had a new Baby, well...the book I got was a lovely childrens book which explained in a child appropriate way where Baby's come from....well....I did not notice until reading right through it that it also had pictures of different sexual positions in it....hm....and it wasn't just the bog standard missionary position...

Bocohohoho · 19/12/2007 18:27

I got given an incredible tunic recently with a badly drawn arctic scene on it, including polar bears and reindeer and huskies. Dp says it looks like the deranged scribblings of a madman.

FluffyMummy123 · 19/12/2007 18:28

Message withdrawn

FrannyandZooey · 19/12/2007 18:28

Boco if you don't want it I will wear it

ahundredtimes · 19/12/2007 18:29

God. I piss about randomly in RL all the time. Though this rarely leads to bonding. It should be said.

[thinks about the lady conference organiser last night whose knee I grabbed]

FluffyMummy123 · 19/12/2007 18:30

Message withdrawn

Bocohohoho · 19/12/2007 18:30

I'll save it for you Franny, i'm not sure i'm brave enough to go out in it.

I'm considering the drunken horse and i can't really find a problem. If it was a crackwhore horse that'd not be good, but fermented apples are just fine.

ahundredtimes · 19/12/2007 18:30

My mother once had a drawn on jacket. Miro had done the drawing. It was a bit much really. She wanted to wear it with a beret.

FluffyMummy123 · 19/12/2007 18:31

Message withdrawn

lljkk · 19/12/2007 18:31

Watching an hour of CITV/week does more to encourage DC to grow up too quick than reading anything in the ORT series ever will.
Or take the Babette Cole book about how babies are made I find that incredibly shocking to read to DC, and it's MEANT for 5yo children. It's so explicit and specific gives my lot way too many ideas....
Bring on the tipsy ponies, I say.

FrannyandZooey · 19/12/2007 18:32

yes when you do it in RL, 100, people just look and then move away quickly

I don't think people think I am going to be the type of person to piss about, so it alarms them when I do

ahundredtimes · 19/12/2007 18:32

Hmm option. It had large buttons and detailing.

Though do you know Francis Bacon offered my Dad one of his paintings once, in a bar. And my Dad said no, he couldn't be arsed to get it home.

We are a family of Hmms I think.

dividedselfridgesxmaswindow · 19/12/2007 18:33

How come you get the fun stories. People just fuck about with hose pipes and dogs and wash the car and shit in ours. That's on an exciting day.

Give me drunk horses any day.

GrimmaTheNome · 19/12/2007 18:34

In reception DD was fond of choosing 'Life Cycle' books for her library book. The first one ever was ... the snail.

Totally age appropriate introduction to hermaphroditism.

I'd have preferred explaining the drunk horse but at least everything else was easy by comparison afterwards!

Bocohohoho · 19/12/2007 18:37

100 - Wow that is impressive - dp is obsessed with Francis Bacon. I think he'd wrestle your dad out of frustration if he met him.

ahundredtimes · 19/12/2007 19:27

Good grief. How surprising for them both. He was his mate.

jINGLESbells · 19/12/2007 20:14

(Quietly)..I agree with OP....
my ds read this last year (when he was 5! Brag ! Smug! Brag!)
and I actually wrote in his reading book that Rotten apples was ridiculous and inappropriate. AFAIK the early stage ORT are for learning to read and comprehension....Far far too hard to explain simply.
AND I HATE the poo book!

ChasingSquirrelsUpTheXmasTree · 19/12/2007 20:16

level 6 isn't really early stage ORT though is it - it is comprehension at that stage.

izzywizzyletsgetbusy · 19/12/2007 20:17

Doesn't Dumbo get drunk (to the point of hallucinating) on champagne after visiting his mum who's been locked up for attacking young boys?

Surely a far more disturbing picture to present, and yet my ds (4) finds it hilarious and has never asked any awkward qu's.

ChasingSquirrelsUpTheXmasTree · 19/12/2007 20:17

sorry, mis-read your post Jingles, ignore 2nd bit of mine.

pinetreedog · 19/12/2007 20:21

I am quite impressed at the number of drunken animlas in children's film and literature that mnetters are mentioning here.

I salute your large memories

peanutbutterkid · 19/12/2007 21:59

I still think OP was being a bit precious... but she's grappling with something that is a persistant problem with precocious readers, better get used to it. It's easier with girls, I reckon, so much of their literature is sweet little fairies and ponies, anyway.

DS is 8 but his reading age is at least 11 and I have to carefully screen what fiction he gets from the library... he can read stuff meant for early teens, but he lacks the maturity to A) be intrested in the subject matters, B) grasp complicated plots, C) handle complex emotional themes -- that are designed for the 11-13 yo age group.

cory · 19/12/2007 23:27

In reply to peanutbutter's post:

Both myself and my dd have been precocious readers, and I don't remember my parents ever censoring my reading: I was let loose in their large and well-stocked library from the very beginning. I remember at the age of 8 or 9 attempting to read Nikos Kazantzakis book about St Francis, not a cute little fairy story at all. But it certainly made an impression!

With my dd my censorship has tended to be limited to a mild "I think you might find that a bit scary" or "I doubt that you'd enjoy that yet". If she chooses to read anyway, then that's up to her. I don't think our library contains any morally damaging books. (Films I do censor though, as IMO it is much harder to turn yourself away from a scary image on screen).

I would not censor things just because she might find them difficult (as opposed to scary or corrupting). That is really for her to judge. When I was 9 I also sat down with a Greek dictionary to read the Iliad. Which was obviously too difficult, but I still remember the huge sense of achievement when I managed to muddle through the first few lines. Looking back, unsupervised reading was one of the greatest pleasures of my childhood- and my dd seems to feel the same. It is one way in which she is growing independent.