To think this mum needs to chill out?

[Dontbanthebooks]

There is a school mum I ‘know’, not friends but she she has added all the other parents on social media. Kids have started year 6. Her first child into this year, but not mine. The year 6s have their own little library with some books aimed at older children.
This mum has taken to social media to declare her anger at finding a swear word in the book her child has brought home from the school library, announcing she will be talking to the school and demanding they remove it from circulation.
I remember my older one reading books that addressed all sorts of difficult themes, racism, homophobia, sexual abuse etc with the occasional swear word. All books aimed at older children and not in a place for the younger ones to pick out and nothing I ever thought was inappropriate.
I never remember any other parents raising it as an issue. This particular parent always has something to say about something, so maybe it’s caught my attention more than if someone else had said it.
I have to admit, I’m tempted to tell her to stop being so precious (I won’t, but I’m tempted) BUT also interested to find out the general consensus.
Do you think I’m reasonable to think her behaviour is ridiculous or aibu and other parents also think Yr 6 kids shouldn’t have access to these books?

Her kid is going to be so embarrassed by her soon, if not already. She's an idiot.

Yanbu. Her kids will have heard it and if not secondary school is going to come as a shock. I read Of Mice and Men in my year 7 English class so she might have a lot to moan about next year. Also Malorie Blackman explores lots of important themes and are great for young people to read.

In year 7, my best friend and I used to pilfer her grandmothers Jackie Collins and Virginia Andrews novels. Shit is nothing compared to the soft porn we were reading. As far as I can tell it didn't do us much psychological damage and did widen our vocabularies 😂.
I'm not recommending this btw, it's just for perspective.

This happened to us, the book was stamped with school stamp. First chapter on first page had fuck, shit, bastard and cunt, and racist comments!!!
I just took it into the office and kindly and quietly let them know

She’s going to be apoplectic next year when her child is exposed to secondary school vocabulary!

My children know all the swear words, they also know they’re not to say them. I wouldn’t give one written in a book any thought.

I remember when I was in 4th year juniors, Judy Blume's "Forever" doing the rounds of all the girls in the class. I imagine this mum would have spontaneously combusted!

Didn’t think shit was realms swear word anymore. She’s being stupid.

Exactly! I was well into raiding my mum's books at that age.

She’s being reasonable.

She should round up every copy of the book, make a big pile and set it alight, with the look of maniacal fanatic in her eyes.

She should then draw up a list of other deviant literature and do the same.

If the word is shit that's even worse

Not even a proper swear word is it

By 10 I'd be surprised if any child didn't know most, if not all swear words.

I still remember when as a class we all learned what cunt meant aged 8

This mum has taken to social media to declare her anger at finding a swear word in the book her child has brought home from the school library, announcing she will be talking to the school and demanding they remove it from circulation

I’d be tempted to comment “Not everyone is going to share your view on this so better raise this with the school directly yourself”. It’s when parents whip up a group of protesters on social media that it really pisses the school off.

She is not going to cope well with her child having access to the secondary school library in a year.

She can always tell her child to just stop reading if they think a book is "too grown up".

'shit' is that it?? At 11 I read to kill a mockingbird. Wonder what she'd make of that.

She needs to calm down and get some interests

It wouldn't bother me, but it also wouldn't bother me if a parent discreetly asked a school to remove a book on account of bad language.

I do think the parent posting it on social media is ridiculous, however.

Search the Barbara Streisand effect - making this a 'thing' will have far more children learning the word than the book ever did.

My mother did complain to my school when I was allowed to borrow Brother In The Land as an eight year old. She was due to teach it to her Year 9 class that year, so knew in intimate detail, before she’d to deal with my screaming-the-house-down nightmares, exactly why it wasn’t suitable reading material to have in a Junior Library. IIRC she did talk to the Headmistress & Librarian about the possibility of limiting borrowing to Y6, but on the Head reading the bit that was the main feature of my nightmares it was decided it was better removed.

She (my mother) died about 19 months after that so I can’t check with her, but I’m as certain as I can be that (even with how strict she was about our not swearing!) she’d have thought this woman was being utterly ridiculous. Just reading the language doesn’t mean you’re going to start using it - I wasn’t inspired to use the N-word when I read “Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry” aged 10, for example; nor to break out any of the VERY rude language Shakespeare uses (at least, not until I was a stroppy point-making teenager). Bowdlerising literature weakens it; & is not good for the psycho-social development of the children & adolescents it was once thought to protect.

The boom in YA fiction is a glorious thing. Obviously making sure (as far as possible) that your children are reading things that are appropriate for them in all ways not just for their reading level is important - the same way you don’t let them read just anything online. But if the school’s gone to the effort of sifting out these books; doubtless they’ll also have been sifted through. Trusting that education professionals are not devoid of any sense of what is appropriate matters. You can make a case for schools not facilitating access to some texts for private reading books (some would suggest “The Diary of Anne Frank” should perhaps be limited to older juniors - as in, age 10+) but going about banning them is, well - in almost all cases ill-advised. Should secondary/6th form libraries stock Solzhenitsyn’s works? Yes, fantastic - but let’s leave out “Two Hundred Years Together”. Be selective about which Shakespeare [plays] you teach when. If you get books donated, make sure “Little Black Sambo” doesn’t end up on the shelves. That sort of thing.

Parents should [be able to] trust schools won’t be doing anything bananas with the books they make available. If the boy had taken home “Playboy: 50 Years in Photographs” absolutely complaining would be the thing to do. As it is, this parent is just making a holy show of herself: her poor son if she does go in giving out about the book.

I would avoid her like the plague.

What on earth would she think of the Biff Chip and Kipper books and all their hidden meanings? Jimmy Saville appears in the library in one of them and a vicar appears in a kids changing room in another. I'd be more worried about them.

I thought you were going to say the C word.

I think all year 6 kids have heard the word shit

If they havent and ask the parent what it means: it's a rude word for poo. End of discussion

Not cunt, fuck, bugger, wank etc

OP

PLEASE stand up and say, you're not against it

Please do it and report back

The woman is insane! I bet her kids are the worst behaved little shits too

I have posted a brief comment in support of this and similar books. There have been no further responses.

I love that scene in Field of dreams where Amy Madigan calls a fellow PTA mom a nazi cow for trying to ban books.

I was reading all sorts at ten. Steven King. James Herbert (I was a little traumatised by The Rats] Virginia Andrew's. Even my mums Jilly coopers. There was a lot of shit in the Herriot books but they were certainly ok reading.

I'd be highlighting how important Blackman is as a children's writer. Few are going to take her side

Another one who was in the Virginia Andrews. All the incest and mean grandmother downstairs 🙄😳

There was that other series too, the Casteels or something? Lived in a shack in West Virginia or somewhere

yeah the heaven series, where heavens mother gets raped by her stepfather then runs away and years later heaven gets involved with her step uncle/half brother

I agree with you but wouldn’t bother to say anything. One of the nice things about year 6 is that you know you’ll be leaving the over involved and otherwise difficult parents behind at the end of the year. Secondary school is lovely in comparison as you have nothing to do with them!