'Selfish' time?!

[AliceWorld]

Does anyone else have a radox advert appearing on here something to do with claiming a book so you can have some 'selfish' time?

Seriously?! We're being told here that having some time to yourself is selfish? I can't imagine what else they are suggesting we should be doing rather than 'selfishly' reading a book

We are probably also selfish if we don't read books, since we will be failing to model for our children a proper appreciation of literature. The path of maternal righteousness is infinitely thin.

yeah but not chicklit. I wonder which books would count as less selfish? I'm still reading The Feminine Mystique at the moment and I bet that would count as selfish too....

sethstarkaddersmum - Books on how to improve ourselves sexually for men would definately NOT be considered selfish. Or recipe books obviously.

you should be right Earwicga, but I fear in my house my cookery books count as 'another one of dw's little obsessions' and would therefore come into the selfish category . Likewise books about children.
we have some of the 'how to be really good at having sex' books but I have never read them. Shall pretend to do so for investigative purposes.

(of course, Mumsnetting definitely counts as selfish, but in actual fact an awful lot of my time on here is spend actually learning about how to be good at looking after children.)

aha, I have an idea. Suppose I were to read dh's boring-as-hell turgid military history stuff about aeroplanes and shit, and tell him quite explicitly I am doing so purely to make myself a more interesting conversational partner for him and thus a better wife? could that count as unselfish?

No, it will count as taking the piss.

Oh. That makes me want to start reading cookery books.

Ha HB!

LOL.
Nigella? cooking and being sexy in one convenient package.

Don't make me do Nigella! I can barely do anything in the kitchen without burning myself or dropping everything, letalone pouting at the same time.

you're probably just not wearing the right low-cut satin dressing gown.
you don't have to actually cook anything proper to be Nigella, just pour some cream and sugar and chocolate into a pan and stir it over a low heat, dipping your fingers in and licking them suggestively from time to time.

It's funny, I love reading. And I love reading in the bath too. And cookery books. But I have never read cookery books in the bath. Perhaps I should start?

I regard reading and having baths as fairly essential to my life, and when I am reading in the bath I'm definitely not available for anything/anyone else. I don't think that's selfish though, and if it is I don't care .

Agree with so much of the above. Great post Quattro.
So maintaining a life and interest is selfish? Looking beyond your immediate experiences? But as you say reading with children is necessary - how will we know what to read with them if we don't read?? At the weekend, DD (3.11) has a long bath and I read whilst sitting in the bathroom -in between chatting and playing, then I have a bath whilst she plays, chats, and reads - well, looks at - her books. Is this selfish? It's a nice Saturday morning for us and one I think is good parenting.