What childhood favourite did not go to plan when you shared it with DC?

[ImImmortalNowBabyDoll]

DD6 is quite strong in her understanding of books and stories and I've been reading my own childhood favourites to her for a few years now- Narnia, Five Children and It, The Borrowers etc. She's not particularly sensitive and not prone to get upset by stories usually.

About a week ago I pulled A Little Princess off the shelf and thought that the language is quite complex but I think she'll like the story.

Anyway, we got to the chapter where Sara's Dad dies and she's removed from her own birthday party, stripped of all her possessions and sent to live in the attic as a servant and she was absolutely devastated. First off furious, ranting about Miss Minchin, and then in floods of tears. She said she hates the book so I asked if she wanted to stop and pick something else but now she needs to know what happens next, so she's furious with me too. 😳

Oops.

I loved these so much as a child - I used to pretend to be Teasel all the time (not Wilfred or Primrose, don't know why!)

They haven't aged well! I really dislike the gendered clothing (bonnets and fussy dresses), how the boys do fun stuff and are naughty whilst the good girls hang around in the kitchen with Mrs Apple. The female mice do all the cooking too. So disappointing.

Sound of music.

“why does she want to marry him? He is rude and not very kind.”

I agree! I bought one all excited and ended up giving it to charity shop. Dated.

I found a Worzel Gummidge dvd in a charity shop.. I was quite gutted ds wasn't impressed

Heathen..

Mine loved the Malory Towers/ St Clare’s, but hated all my Noel Stretfield books that I loved at their age.

Tom’s midnight garden bombed. Not traumatised but bored and wouldn’t let me read anymore.

I loved Swallows and Amazons when I was a child, so I took it to read to DS2 (who was around 10) when we were camping in The Lakes. About halfway through chapter one he asked me if the whole book was just going to be about knots…

When DS2 was really small (around 3), he wanted to take that DVD out of the library. I told him he could when he was 7. As soon as he was 7, he insisted on going to get it 😁.

I loved Karate Kid, we tried the new version with 12 year old but she was so upset

Nope, we have a rule- we never watch the film until we've read the book.

Ah she loved Tom's Midnight Garden and still talks about it all the time!

A few posters have reminded me of Ballet Shoes which is much less traumatic than A Little Princess so I think I'll try that one next, I LOVED Ballet Shoes.

My daughters were horrified at the cliques and bullying in the St Clare's and Mallory Towers books and were particularly aggrieved on behalf of poor Gwendoline, whom I'd just casually accepted as deserving what she got.

She was a bit awful tbh. 😂

I read good night Mr Tom and sobbed so hard when Willy has to go home and his mum is horrific. I cried so hard (maybe9) that I woke my mum up on the other side of the house and she came into my room and obviously saw the issue so flipped to the bit where Mr Tom has him again and adopts him. 🤣

Grease bombed when I showed it to teen DD. It has not aged well!

The start of The Secret Garden is absolutely traumatising. I had no memory of how horrific it was, her parents dying, the staff abandoning her. I had no memory of this. Starting reading it to my DD and she begged me to stop.

The Never Ending Story!!!! Walked off after 20 mins......

My DC loved that show, nearly as much as me.

Not quite a childhood favourite as I never got one, but I bought a Mr Frosty. Told my kids all about how much I wanted one, how sad I was when I didn’t get one, and how all of us in my class secretly hated Jennifer smith a bit because she did get one and raved about it.

it was crap. The kids were utterly baffled why I’d been so excited.

even now that the elder three are in their mid 20’s they will use “it was Mr Frosty bad…” as an explanation of how shit something was

Completely different theme but my childhood favourite dinner was cottage pie. My DC hate it.

A Little Princess is my absolute favourite! But I wouldn’t read it with my DD until she’s about 9 (currently 5). I walked down the aisle to the film music when I got married in the Caribbean ☺️

What an odd rule. Books and films are separate works of art, surely. They’re not at all a substitute for each other.

I always find it very stunted thinking when people cling to the trope that ‘the film’s never as good as the book’.

Films or TV shows often bring people into books too.

I don’t think I would have read Gone
With the Wind at ten if I hadn’t seen the film. 1000 pages seemed daunting back then. It was a favourite book of mine
for years and brought me a lot of pleasure. Also led to an in interest in the civil war which in turn led me to Shelby Foote’s books a few years later, A few years earlier I’d had zero interest in Anne of Green Gables until a tv series of it was screened. That led me to read the entire series many times, again with so much pleasure.

I would have thought these experiences were shared by many voracious readers.

Whatever 🙄

I was gutted neither of my boys took to The Little Mermaid film (the original).

I can’t even count how many times I put the film on and tried to get them to watch it 🤣

See, this is why I could never have children! I couldn't bear with them to not love the things I do!!