To not want to read really shit books to my baby?

[CooCooCaChu]

I've got an eight month old baby. We've got lots of really basic baby books. You know the kind, red circle on one page, blue triangle on the next. Or the endless 'that's not my ...'.

I find it incredibly boring to keep going 'oh look, this is a cow. Moooo.'

If I don't read these basic books, will she miss out on something important developmentally? Or can I skip straight to things with more of a narrative so I don't feel the need to stab myself in the eye just to create a bit of excitement?

Yabu you need to spend hours reading 'here is a car, brum brum'
Yanbu read something more fun, your baby will probably enjoy it more anyway

@CooCooCaChu
Op I've concluded most people don't know the type of book you're talking about, or if they do know they treat them as toys for baby to pick up and turn pages themselves, never actually read them to the child.

In the passing I looked in a couple of supermarkets neither of them had them. Which means you need to go to a proper book shop or order from Amazon.

A well meaning relative bought one of my kids something like the one pictured. Dull boring, and almost like people never point out every day objects to their kids.

We had loads and they drove me insane, too. So mind numbing. I’d read my kid whatever I was reading. I never did the inane ‘kids’ music’ either, I played what I liked.

He’s smart as a whip, so I think as long as you engage with them, that’s enough.

I loved these books. Read endless ‘that’s not my..’ loved hamming up the ‘blue square’ abstract stuff. There were a few twee stories with less interesting pictures or words but we had hundreds of pre-school books and they were a major part of my children’s lives.

I also liked Biff and Chip and the Magic Key. Oh Floppy! No, Floppy!

But I hated Beast Quest. Listened to dc1 read the first four aloud and declared that they would be reserved for silent reading. We didn’t get past the front cover of Rainbow Fairies.

I read almost 300 pages of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to a friend's almost 1 year old when I was babysitting and it happened to be the one I was reading at the time. Every time I thought he'd gone to sleep so I could stop reading aloud he started fussing again so I had to pick back up. I think he quite enjoyed it in the end. I've also read him many a lesbian romance from my kindle and he's never complained about them either. And sometimes I read him excerpts of the novel I'm currently writing so I can pretend it's published and I'm doing a book reading at Waterstones. If it ever does get published I think I'll have to dedicate it to him at this rate

My kids were like cocaine addled ravers when it came to bedtimes. My Mum bought them (me) a copy of 'The Rabbit Who Couldn't Sleep' for Christmas one year.

It has different typefaces for what you're supposed to read slowly, faster, in a sleepy voice, etc. so the power of suggestion basically hypnotises them to sleep.

I feel asleep every bloody time & they would keep poking me to wake up & finish the story 🙄

Once they got to about 7 they finally became good at bedtimes - if anyone needs a light at the end of the tunnel?

Awww really, I actually love those books! Hehe

Great ideas generally but speaking from the standpoint of a multilingual family I REALLY wouldn’t do 1. unless you have experience of the language as otherwise the kid will pick up your pronunciation errors.

as for the original OP, we have a 4yo and a baby and have done both from an early age (basic board books for concepts plus narratives intended for slightly older children aged 2-5). I would also quote Maria Montessori at this point: “Follow the child.” My 4yo cannot read but we have been reading Roald Dahl to him lately, specifically George’s Marvellous Medicine, as he is obsessed with potions and mixing at the moment and so I knew he would love this story. He loves the concept of chapter books generally as he sees this as being quite grown-up compared to books for younger children that you read all in one shot (though he still enjoys plenty of books of this nature too) - so we have read Flat Stanley recently too. Mix it up! Your kid will be fine.

Read whatever you like. It's just about baby hearing general language. I would make sure to mix in basic stuff like alphabet, shapes and counting but besides that you can read whatever most of the time. Little tip, if you really can't spare the energy and are sick of it, basically every book is on YouTube with someone reading it and turning the pages for you. I discovered this after reading rainbow fish and hungry caterpillar 6 times a day.

The only books (or on TV) that I can't abide are Pepper Pig ones. The pictures are awful. Who has all their features on one side of their face! My little granddaughter adores the 'That's not my' books and loves to feel the textures. She loves lift the flap books in fact anything where she can interact. I started off buying all new but now buy some decent books from ebay. Her daddy has enrolled her at the local library too. I have bought all the 'Ten minutes to bed' books. There are extra characters in each book and the author has written books about them too so they all sort of go together