Last week was a crazy week with school ending, dance recital, and parties of all sorts. And when I feel too overwhelmed by the hamster wheel that is oftentimes my life, I reach for a book and head off to find a quiet corner. Reading grounds me. It takes me far from stresses, good or bad, everyday or extraordinary. Some days it really is the only thing that keeps me sane. And so I laugh as I get ready for bed when my husband plaintively asks after a very long day, "Are you going to read?" I suppose that watching tv is the wind-down equivalent for many people but I've never been much of a watcher. I have always lived mostly in my own imagination and in the words of the wonderful authors who offer me glimpses into their imaginations. There are few better places to be, in my opinion.
I wish my children would find this same sense of happiness between the covers of books and while I think that sometimes they do, I also wonder at their insistence that they don't want to. Has my constant reading inadvertantly caused a backlash by them? Experts all say that children need to see that their parents read and mine certainly have that but it hasn't followed that they submerse themselves and for that I am a little saddened. Yesterday at dance recital #3 of the day, in the 45 minutes to half hour before the show started, I looked up from my book and turned to my young ballerina. Overly made-up and costumed, she had curled into her seat and was completely engrossed in her book. A little oasis of calm in a sea of complete pre-show chaos. She must be mine after all.
Because of the stress of the week, I have been book hopping again and so this past week, I have visited the beach with a girl whose father abandoned his family, roamed the globe with a foreign correspondent's cat, faced the newly revealed truth of a serial adulterer with a distraught widow, fled an abusive husband only to meet a soul mate, made friends with a late husband's mistress (ironically this could be said to be true of two books this week--one fiction and one non-fiction), and traveled back in time into Peru to map longitude and latitude and answer conclusively the shape of the earth. Wonder where I'll go this week?
And I wonder where you will go too. Love your final paragraph. And love the way you just roll with everything. I have never been much of a television person myself. I find it anything but relaxing especially commercials. And the kids will read in their own time. I just never mention it to my own. They just do or they don't. But as you mention, they definitely see Mom reading. It will all play out in the end. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteI am a big TV watcher and it definitely cuts into my reading time. When I was a kid, I combined both things -- you'd be surprised how much reading you can get done during commercial breaks. Now that we have a DVR, my husband speeds through all the breaks so it is more difficult for me to resist the TV.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a tv watcher myself. I'm with you about the kids, although they will probably arrive on their own. My eldest isn't much of a reader, but my second is. And it's a wonder because I read to them the same. Nurture plays a big role, but nature does, too. :)
ReplyDeleteI love your last paragraph, too. Pretty and poetic.
ReplyDeleteMy parents hardly read except for newspaper. My reading habit was influenced by my teacher. It started out as a forced assignment, but it turned out to be my lifelong interest.
I agree to Claire about the nature's part. Children have high potential. It's just that reading is not their interest now and they're eager to explore more.