To think bedtime stories should not be emotional?!

[Cadela]

This is lighthearted!

Just read Dd the Paper Dolls and got slightly choked up at the boy chopping them up, full on holding back sobs at the memories bit with granny 😭 Trying to read a bedtime story with a massive lump in your throat is a nightmare!

The other one that does it to me is ‘The Girls’ when they all come back to the tree all grown up.

In my defence I’ve been an easy crier since pregnancy and happy to show Dd all emotions but sobbing during bedtime isn’t what I planned 😂

Is there a bedtime book that does it for you too?

@goodkidsmaadhouse and the illustration of the frozen dead body found the next day. I wonder if there really was that picture but in my memory there was and it still upsets me!

Yes I think there was, I might be imagining it but I’m sure there was.

The Tiger Who Came To Tea makes me cry.....

I bought Puff the Magic Dragon so I could sing it to my children but it's hard when you're holding in tears! 'Mummy why has your voice gone funny' they'd say then make me sing it again.

Why?! 🤣

My kids are 18 and 15 now but I was pregnant I used to tear up reading the snail and the whale.

It sounds like I was lucky avoiding Paper Dolls.

I'd not recommend reading The Snail and the Whale as a bedtime story hours after your dad dies.

The Snail and the Whale, Horton Hatches the Egg, Some Dogs Do,

My child came home with a book called 'The invisible' and I had to take a minute so i didn't start crying! A beautiful book

I hate the Paper Dolls. There's a one dimensional bad boy character who simply comes in and destroys the dolls. We know nothing about him except he's a boy. No reason given, no other aspect to his character, no context. Great. No stereotyping there, at all. Nope, none. And we wonder why expectations of boys are so low 🤦🏻‍♀️

I had no idea that the snail and the whale was so old! I thought the Julia Donaldson books were all circa 0-5 years old, and she was just pumping out classics every 6 months currently. You live and you learn!

@Quittingwifework her first book was published in 1993! (A squash and a squeeze)

@Quittingwifework "CurlewKate
The Tiger Who Came To Tea makes me cry.....

Why?! 🤣"

They bought a big tin of tiger food in case he came again. But he never did.
😢

Don't get me started on the last picture in We're Going On A Bear Hunt!
Or, saints preserve me...Once There Were Giants. 😮

@CurlewKate but why is that sad? I thought the Tiger was an asshole in that story 😁. Actually I have no idea what it's meant to represent?

@Elebag what's sad about the Snail and the Whale? I always thought it was a lovely uplifting book.

I think maybe I am missing out on some metaphors here..!

The tiger was bad news - it’s good he didn’t come back!

I have really enjoyed the memes about the tiger came to tea being a cover for the mother just having a crap parenting day and drinking all daddy’s beer herself…

@PuttingDownRoots amazing !!!

@Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong my husband is Jewish and always says the tiger is supposed to be a metaphor for nazi germany

@Quittingwifework The Nazi theory was mentioned in Motherland but I didn't get it and thought it was a joke I had missed. Is because he just took everything and left? I would have thought the Nazis did a bit worse than that!! I still feel I'm missing something.

@Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong
I feel like the tiger is a benevolent force, and I have two theories, firstly, the tiger represents the little girl's imagination, and secondly, bit more off the wall, that the tiger represents the mother's unfulfilled desires (whether sexual or otherwise). I am going on the fact that Judith Kerr's mother seems to have always been a rather dissatisfied person in life. The desires are limitless, however much they eat up they are never satisfied (particularly the idea of the water in the tap). Anyway that's my weird take on it..

Michael Rosen came up with the theory that Judith kerr used the tiger to represent the gestapo.

@crumblingschools I am still deeply traumatised by Back Home by Michelle Magorian (also Goodnight Mr Tom), also the Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren which starts with the older brother dying and the younger brother missing him terribly and the younger one tries to get to the afterworld to find him. There was also a terribly upsetting book about 3 siblings who have to cross America alone or something. These are some of the ones I chose not to track down for my kids. The exception is the book that terrified me the most, Garth Pig and the Ice Cream lady, I did buy an old copy of that for my kids and they were very unbothered. Same with the Witches by Roald Dahl. I was in tears of terror for several days after reading that aged 7 and really believed those witches were out there, but my kids totally unbothered.

I spoke to Judith Kerr about the tiger who came to tea she said that it was a story she made up to tell her daughter who loved tigers.

@choixduroi Ive always thought the tiger just represents Sophie’s imagination. At the end when they walk to the cafe there’s a cat (I think ginger) in the street and I’m sure that’s not a coincidence. And maybe the tiger not coming back just reflects that she was growing up.

Ah cross post! Well there we go 🙂

I cry at Stick man.

@goodkidsmaadhouse , oh yes good point about the ginger cat almost mirroring the tiger.
@purser25 wow how amazing that you met Judith Kerr. Someone I would have really loved to meet.

I don’t understand how
stick man and the snail and the whale are emotional! I do have paper dolls arriving today though so keen to see what that’s like…