There's no arguing that most times, our mother is our greatest influence. I've often said that my mother is why I became liberal, democrat, compassionate, opinionated, and more. Many of those things happened because of what she read to me when I was a child.
Look back, way back, into your childhood, and come with me to a time when you felt safe, loved, and special.... or to a time when you made your kids feel that way.
Earlier this week, I had a toothache, and had to go to the dentist. Bad news on examination, the tooth had to go. When I was on my way home, sick, aching, numb from the anesthesia, and feeling a profound sense of wrongness because part of my body had just been yanked away, my instinct was to call my mother. As soon as I got home, I called her. She gave me appropriate amounts of sympathy. She understood.
That's moms for you.
Some of my earliest memories of childhood are of my mother reading to me. We grew up, mostly together, in my grandmother's house. (My mom was only two weeks into sixteen when I was born. In many ways, she was like an older sister to me.) I had a horrible vinyl toybox that was filled mostly with books. We had the multi-volume set on the shelf, "Encyclopedia of Children's Literature" that my mom read from to me. I had books stacked in my grandmother's beauty shop in the basement. I had books in my bedroom. I coveted my aunt's collection of Nancy Drew books that she treasured so much. My grandmother had, in addition to the Kiddy Lit books, the "encyclopedia of science" and the regular Encyclopedia Britannica, with as many year-books as I was old. My goodness, but we were a literate household.
When I was about four years old, my mom was reading "green eggs and ham" to me. I told her I wanted to read it to her instead. My big thing at that age was "My do it myself!"... I was cussedly independent and hated having things done for me. Also, I think even then I hated being read to. Mom handed the book over and I read it to her. It was one of my favorites, so the assumption was that I'd memorized it. A good assumption, but since she was in college studying to be a teacher, she wanted to make sure. She went to the store and bought "fox in sox". I read it to her. And that was pretty much the end of others reading to me.
Don't get me wrong, my mother, aunts, and uncles were all willing to read to me. But I wanted to do it myself. I'd ask for help on difficult words sometimes, but mostly I'd slog on and figure it out for myself. It led to some interesting misinterpretations and mispronounciations along the way, let me tell you.
During elementary school, we had Scholastic Book Fairs a couple times a year. I always got a blank check for those. I was horribly indulged where books were concerned. I got whatever I wanted. I remember walking home the mile or so from school with this enormous pile of books, trying to hold on to all of them and read one as I walked. Invariably, I'd have them all read within a week or two, and it was back to the library. I could read whatever I wanted, and if it was in the adult section, my mom would get it out for me if she thought it was okay for me to read.
When I was nine, we went to Europe on a teachers' tour. We shared books, to save space in the luggage, and my mom and I both read "My Friend Flicka", "Rebecca" by DuMarier, and many Agatha Christie books.
Fast-forward many years, and my own children are small. And now comes another patented JLongs Confession (tm). I didn't read much to them. I was a busy single parent, much like my mother was, and she did most of the reading to my kids like she had for me. The books were much the same, many Dr. Seuss books, much absurdity, plenty of color and fun pictures. The best books I remember from when my girls were small are the Fred Gwynne books.. if you haven't seen them, look at them, now. They're hilarious. (Yes, Fred Gwynne, AKA Herman Munster.) They were indulged much like I was with as many books as they wanted. My girls also learned to read young and both became avid readers. My younger one, who is now 19, reads almost as much as I do.
I think the comic sense and the absurdity of the books I read as a child helped mold me into the absurd, bizarre person I am today. I have a distinctly skewed world-view, and its one of the things that keeps me sane in this day and age. My reading definitely helped me become and stay liberal, as I've long said that an educated person is an openminded person, and an openminded person is a tolerant person, and a tolerant person is a liberal person.
Moms out there, Happy Mothers Day. What do you read to your kids? Do you restrict your kids' reading in any way?
Non-Moms out there, what do you remember being read when you were a child? Did you wish you had more? Did you have enough?
And, as always, what have you read lately?