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

Yes, basic baby books teach them colours, shapes, listening to the tones of your voice repetitively, poetic and speech rhythms, anticipation of rhymes, and also the sheer fact that lovely things happen between the pages of books. They also learn to treat books with respect but board books stand up to the endless repetitive reading (again, again, one more time!) and bashing/chewing. Don’t hesitate to read what you want to them, but don’t miss out reading to them at their level, all the way through. It’s about communicating, love, strengthening your bond, and you won’t get that from reading them Marie Claire articles (or whatever!) alone.

At 8mo my kids had a black and white “faces” book which they seemed to respond well too. I used to say nose (pointing to the book) and then nose (touching their face) etc, it was lovely. Also mind-numbingly repetitive. As was Room on the Broom, Paper Dolls, Richard Scarry, Tiger Who Came To Tea, Oi Frog, Jolly Postman, etc etc etc. But they’ve loved books all the way through and been top of phonics in their year groups, so I think allllll the reading was worth it.

Cars don’t even go ‘brum’

yanbu. Read them whatever

I like nosy crow books.

I also like pop up books and spot the dog.

I think you can pick more fun ones. Most of the books we had from the beginning were those ones that I think are aimed at like 3-5
Like the gruffalo kind of aged books.
You can still do the whole look theres a mouse! Can you see the pig? What a huge sandwich! What is she carrying on her head? Where is the daddy alien? Oooh a red shiny tomato!! thing with them.
Just with an actual story to make it more fun. A lift the flap/thats not my .. is great once in a while but books like 006 and a bit are just more fun

I think the simple ones are good for building understanding and vocab. Colours, describing texture describing things etc. it’s horribly boring but they are good for reinforcement “this is yellow thats yellow” etc etc. this is a monkey, this is a dragon, this is a circle and so on and so on.

Well hands up after 4 kids I'm bored of reading kids books but I still do it. As they get older it's more enjoyable but I think you have to suck it up. Find books that you don't hate.

Reading is so important - I listed to a podcast ages ago and the word gap between lower incomes and higher income families is millions (I think the name of the podcast was 30 million words) and reading is a way for lower incomes to bridge the gap.

Read whatever you like! I liked to keep those ones around for nights when I really couldn't be bothered/was ill etc. because they're short and I could get them off to bed quicker.

The Sue Hendra books kept us going for quite a while when they were tiny. 10 or so books in the pack, not too long and they LOVED them. Peppa pig board books weren't too bad either.

They do if you’re from Birmingham.

Richard Scarry books are great even for babies. Lots of animals and colours and actual stories.

Good to share nursery rhymes also - great for language development. However I second Each peach pear plum and Peepo by the Ahlbergs - they are fab. Also yes yes yes to going to the library as they will have loads of different books for you to try

Can't you just tune it out?

I'm a primary school teacher and have a reputation of being an excellent book reader but I'm not thinking about Harry the Dirty Dog when I'm reading it. My brain is thinking about something else.

I hated the “that’s not my” series, they were just awful, really weird and contrived. So I didn’t read them. There are other short board books available, and I read longer ones too or just talked about the pictures on each page without reading the text.

They like any types of books. The basic ones are good and often have different textures to touch etc. but they like hearing your voice so The Tiger who came to Tea would be good too.

This.

After a bit you can read them while you are actually asleep and your brain is switched to standby.

Some favourites for mine were We're going on a bear hunt, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and The Gruffalo. I didn't read baby board books really but a bedtime story was very much a part of their bedtime routine.

There are both for reading and books for eating.
All the ´That’s not my llamelephdonkgoose’ books are for eating.

@QuillBill I taught English for a long time and have perfected the art of reading aloud - well, and with voices and everything- while not taking in a single word it it. Essential on your umpteenth go round of a class reader. And more than essential for baby books! I like proper picture books with good rhymes or stories but they’re fairly rare tbh. Once we got into chapter books and I got to choose, then we’re talking.

To be quite honest when mine were teeny tiny I read aloud from whatever I was reading. It’s about the sound of your voice, cadences, patterns etc anyway, not what you actually read. Once they can turn pages then go on to the proper baby books. But don’t think they’ll get to 30 not knowing what red is because you skipped that baby book.

Read 'Apple, Pear, Orange Bear' by Emily Gravett. It hasn't got any words and it's all down to you. It's great! Or any of her other books

You might as well get used to it, because as soon as the child can express a literary opinion it's going to ask for favourite stories over and over again.

When I'm a babbling old fart in the dementia ward, I'll still be chanting Bears In the Night, or The Elephant and the Bad Baby.

Rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta.

Depends if you want to help them learn colours, sounds, words, names of animals etc. I read them with my son and showed him the pics etc and did all the noises and he loved it and spoke very quickly.

I used to read whatever book I was reading at that time to ds, hasn't effected him, he's 3 now. Although, pretty sure I heard dh reading that's not my tractor to him tonight 🤣 usually it's the 10 minutes to bedtime series (which I liked the first 2 or 3 times) every night with maybe 1, 2, 3 do the dinosaur, diggersaurs explore or the wonky donkey books to mix it up a bit 🤦‍♀️ I don't remember when we moved from 3 bedtime stories to 5 but we have...

Read what you like I guess. I hated being read to so my dad gave up after I was a toddler and kept grabbing the book to "do it MYSELF"
They just made sure I saw them reading and that there were always books/magazines about, nothing was off limits
I still read a lot

You might find them boring.... But you aren't reading them for you. Read your baby the baby books, they are amazing for their development. Then read your own, more interesting, books later on.

YANBU. I hated the 'That's Not My...' books with a passion. They were so contrived! We had a pile of them but I got rid of them pretty quickly and never read them to my second baby at all. At that age I'd be reading stuff with rhyme and repetition like the Ahlbergh books Each Peach Pear Plum, Peepo and the Baby Catalogue; Hairy McLairy from Donaldsons Dairy and some of the Julie Donaldson books like Squash and a Squeeze and What the Ladybird Heard. You can still talk to them about the pictures and point stuff out too.