Bored of Reading to my Toddler

[NoKusuAllowed]

Hi all! My 21-month old is sharp, eloquent, and loves reading. Unfortunately, as she's a toddler, she also loves repetition, and for around a year has been insisting that I read the same books over and over and over, such that it drives me insane. I used to oblige as I wanted to foster her love of language, but even though we rotate our 70+ books regularly, and I've recently implemented a 'read twice' maximum for each book at a time, I still can't help but cringe and be visibly irritated when she brings me the same ten-page, (once charming) dull-as-dishwater folio that she brought to me an hour ago. Or being bored to tears of a book I've just rotated back in after the first re-read, having had months away from it.
I've tried reading her some of my books with limited success, but, understandably, she's not as interested in that, so it's not a viable substitute.
I want to keep reading to her, but I don't want to continuously buy new books from the charity shop, and the frequency of my boredom means that I can't rely on the library unless I want to walk there several times a week, which isn't really feasible. I also don't want to put her off by involuntarily groaning whenever she approaches me with a book. Does anyone have any advice? Many thanks in advance!

Also just read the bedtime/ sleep issue...

I've recently had this issue and now ds and I get him ready for bed in the living room, brush teeth and we each pick out one story and read those together and then he goes down to his cot which seemed to help break it up. Alternatively you aim for an earlier bedtime so you can read for longer. Or what I've also done is tell ds that I'll read him one "eyes closed" story which is a story I read in the near dark but the deal is he needs to be lying down in his cot with his eyes closed to hear it or I won't read. I'll purposefully pick a nice calm book or make something up holding a book he knows so it's not too familiar. He usually falls asleep by the end. I'd say the key here is get a really set routine in place with clear step by step things you do the exact same every night on the wind down to bed. If ds is up too late I have a way harder time winding him down so your little one might need an earlier bedtime.

You’re still not making sense.

Stop waffling about books and just put your daughter to bed. It’s irrelevant what she’s fannying about with and running rings around you over. Just read some Snail and the Whale and put her to bed.

Just keep reading to her and grit your teeth through the stories you’re bored off. There’s a hell of a lot more boredom coming your way, trust me.

Indeed. Just wait till she goes to school and they keep sending home the excruciating Oxford Reading Tree books with the inane tales of Biff, Chip, Kipper and Floppy the dog.

"Oh no!" said Mum.
"Oh no!" said Chip.

Suddenly the magic key began to glow.

Ad nauseum.

How many books do your library allow a child to take out ? We used to be allowed loads - I think about 15-30 - mix it up with some non fiction too

She’s still awake because you’re still reading. Just stop after a set number of age appropriate books. I do 3, of my son’s choice. Now he’s older there’s very little repetition and he selects 3 different ones most nights- he still has some solid favourites but if he gets ‘hooked’ on a book and wants it nightly it’s temporary. It can take longer because he asks lots of questions but that’s normal at his age (3.5).

Set a boundary with story time or you’ll be perched on the end of her bed reading book after book until she decrees she’s tired enough for you to stop, for years and years. No wordy tome is worth a small child having bags under their eyes.

I'm sorry, how have you taken a post about my difficulty in reading the same books over and over, and then told me that the routine I've found - that gets her to sleep happy enough and on time - is the thing that I need to focus on and change?

She gets sad when she doesn't get what she wants, especially at bed time when she's tired. Her 30 seconds of tears was an off-handed comment about her dedication to this interest. 'Just put her to bed', like, what, read her book once and then dump her on her own in a room to figure the rest out? No, she has a routine that has made it easier to get her to sleep. The amount of time in tears gets smaller and smaller every night as expectations are set, this is a really silly thing to have I justify or focus on in the broader context of the thread, which is about the 23hrs Before bedtime that I have an issue.

Awww..... Christopher Nibble. That's a memory 😍
It was a freebie one from Booktrust (do babies and toddlers still get those free packs of books).
I think I liked it more than my daughter
😂 I loved the illustrations.
(We also got Owl Babies which I hate with a passion)

"Oh Floppy"
😂

"She zones out of the older books and falls asleep, but she has been up for hours past bed time because she wants to read the same book and refuses to sleep even if she's no longer coherent. This is one reason I've had to implement a 'read twice' rule, because she will make me read the same five-page book for over an hour and still not be bored."

I think this is what's read to people that bedtime is a mare for you and more than 30 seconds of tears? It read to me as if bedtime is taking hours as well.

My DH used to turn the pages of the book but tell a really silly story instead. I used to change the names to daft things like Sausage Wiggleypoo. Made DS laugh and released some tension. In reality she's just after your attention.

(We also got Owl Babies which I hate with a passion)

Noooo! I love Owl Babies and feel like reporting this hateful comment about it. And there was a thread the other day hating on Bear Hunt.

I was taken aback once when my brother in law read Owl Babies to my children and gave the youngest owl a bratty whining voice. It changed the whole feel of the story. When I read it to the children myself I usually choked back a sentimental sob at "AND SHE CAME!!" I think I can still recite half the words or more, and my youngest is 27#!

Perfectly good advice, thank you, and as mentioned before, I do set boundaries for precisely this reason. This is why she gets her book twice, then we swap to an adult book. We found through trial and error that swapping to an adult book was a much better compromise for her than stopping reading entirely, so that's what we do. This isn't a bed time issue, a page or two into the adult book and she's quite happy to lie down and go to sleep, a book of her choice and she's up all night, no book and we have sing until she stops crying. We've played with different bedtimes and routines, but this one works; it's the difference between getting her to bed in 20 mins or 2+hours. Bed time is not an issue, she's happy as can be by page 2 and my husband and I get to finish the chapter and talk about it before we go to sleep ourselves. This issue is about the difficulty I have repeating those same books throughout the day.

Not to be overly hostile, it's just that people have latched on to this one point and I'm really not sure why when it's irrelevant to the crux of the thread. I appreciate the personal insight :)

@PlasticAcrobat I just find Owl Babies a depressing story about 3 scared children who are left home alone while their single mother goes out to work 😂😂
@NoKusuAllowed it can be dull reading the same ones over and over but after a while you can have fun over analysing the silly plots.

Get a Tonie Box. She can keep listening to the same story and you haven't got to read it. Win win😁

I remember those days. When dd wasn’t even walking yet, I hid her favorite book. It only had one word, over and over. I needed a break. 3 days later she pulled it out and handed it to me to read like she had known where it was the entire time. (This was a sign of things to come)

unless your library has a low limit, you need to check out more books at a time.

if you don’t have Sandra Boynton books, I recommend those. They feel more like songs to me so the repetition didn’t bother me as much.

Get a Toniebox and some creative Tonies and record yourself reading all her favourite books. Then, when she wants a book for a third time, say that she can listen to it on the Toniebox instead.

My son moved Owl Babies so much I paid for him to have an experience with some owl babies at a wildlife sanctuary. He was terrified of them, and we never read the book again 😩

Yes they do still give out those toddler reading bags, but the books are rubbish, we just got ‘Zoom Zoom Zoom We’re Going to the Moon’ in book form.

I love Paper Dolls but my son doesn’t get the sentiment yet 😅

My ds favourite book was called Bumper to Bumper. It’s about a traffic jam.

I don't think all the people who are saying what a lovely stage it is and how much they would like to go back, it how good it is for the children are really helping the OP.
The op said they don't like it so we can take that on face value. Also they clearly know how important it is!
My advice would be to just say no a lot more. You are not a robot and your needs are as important as your child's. Yes you have to do something you don't like sometimes, but you can still say no and if you feel guilty then that's ok.
Also it's good for children to be bored sometimes, so you can have reading time between 11-11:15 and 3-3:15 and you can even set a countdown timer.
And you can also use it when you need them to do something like tidy up your toys and we will read a book. That won't work yet but it can help you to put things into perspective, and it will work in a couple of years.
Good luck!

Oh and I forgot to add get a yoto player and record the stories on a make your own card and then your little one can listen when you are not available

I read “Dear Zoo” 5 times yesterday. It won’t last long. I’d just be thrilled she’s so into books.

Ugh I feel your pain OP. I've found a few ways of 'coping'

• Limiting the number of books to 3 per night max (and using them as bribery for getting ready for bed quickly - no books if too much messing about)
• Pretending I'm a voice actor recording an audio book
• Developing the ability to think of other stuff whilst simultaneously reading aloud

Good luck!

You can get 30 books out of our local library at a time, I'm sure that would see you through a week. We go once a week with my DD, spend about an hour there reading/choosing books and then replace them the following week or two.

Some of the books DD loves are boring to read again and again but it is what it is. When I get really bored I just say someone else has requested it and we can get it out again. This does sometimes happen but often she's moved onto something else.

My advice would be to seek out series - they get to revisit their favorite characters but slightly different for you.

Read a book once and dump her on her own to figure it out?

No. Obviously not. I think you know that.

Would she really stay up for hours on end crying until her eyes have purple bags because you won’t read a particular book over and over? This is what you said. If so, this isn’t in the realms of normal toddler behaviour. I’d be looking at her behaviour as a whole and seeing if there was anything else to be concerned about. If you think there’s nothing amiss, I’d be looking at how she can possibly be getting into such a state over it. Your solution is to continue reading to her- just not a book of her choosing- and I would argue this isn’t helpful to establishing a good bedtime routine.

Then again, as far as rods for your own back go, some people sit for hours on their child’s bedroom floor until they fall asleep, so maybe getting stuck reading Lord of the rings every night to her isn’t as bad as some rods.

My youngest was obsessed with really rubbish books when he was a toddler. Topsy and frigging Tim for one. But they love the familiarity of a book they know.

It won’t last long. Soon you’ll be like me and reciting Each Pear Plum and Peepo to no-one at all, wishing you had a squidgy little toddler’s hand resting on your lap as you turn the pages.