Good Reads Library
No, She Doesn't HAVE To See "Harry Potter"
This rant follows reading an article in the Washington Post on parents taking their young children to the PG 13 rated "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". Stuff like this always annoys me, but what really set me off was the following quote from "Ashleah", the mother of a 4 year old who reads her "Harry Potter" at bedtime each night:
"She has to go.... I know people freak out saying "Isn't she too young?". But she loves it"
No she doesn't have to, lady!
She has to have food.She has to have clothing. She has to have a roof over her head.
I never saw "going to a movie recommended for kids 9 years older than you and up" on the list of "Things A Child Needs"
Either you are:
A) One more of the parents who thinks that reading books far over your child's age and taking them to movies they are too young for will advance them academically.
B) Too damn lazy to ask a librarian or even a bookseller for help in finding AGE APPRORPRIATE materials that you and your child will really enjoy, so you grab the trendy book everyone is talking about.
C) Bored with kids books written on your child's level, so you read books YOU want to read and take them to movies YOU want to see.
D) A combination of one or more of the above. OR:
E) An idiot. Plain and simple.
I don't know which you are. I just feel sorry for your little darling. And I hope when she's 6 or 7 and reading "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" instead of at 14 or 15 like she should, you're prepared to explain all that stuff about the birds and the bees?
Or have you already been reading her "The Joy of Sex" in between Harry Potter books?
