Life lesson: Do not eat books. They do not provide any health benefit. They do not taste good. And eating books makes Mommy mad.
I love libraries and books and I passed that love on to M when she was mere months old. If I can't find her it is usually because she is curled up with a book somewhere. I have always taught respect for the printed word so I was taken aback when M started tearing pages out of her books and magazines. I jumped on that right away and reiterated respect, but still the bizarre ripping stage continued. Because she had not torn any library books I thought we were in the clear. (Stupid mistake on my part.) It was the day before J was going to be sealed to us and I had my day planned almost to the minute when I realized I had not heard M in awhile. I went in her room and she had a library book open, a page torn, and was surrounded by spitballs. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! She had chewed up the page and spit it out. I am going to say it again...NO! Desperate times call for life lessons so I stopped all preparations threw M and J in the car and drove to the library explaining to M that we were going to tell the librarian what she had done. My fear was that the librarian was going to a) tell me to pay for the book. (I mean, we have all seen ripped and mended library books.) or b) tell M that her Mommy was overreacting. So before I said anything. I told the librarian that M was learning a life lesson. Then I plopped my girl who knew better on the counter and told the story and asked how she could make amends. That librarian sent us to the children's librarian where I repeated our story. With a serious voice and a twinkle in her eye the librarian said eating books was not good behavior and made other children miss out on words and illustrations. Thankfully, she felt M had made restitution by being honest. I explained to M that we could not check out books until I was sure she had learned to treat things with respect. I am pleased to announce that M has not added any more paper to her diet and she has regained her library book privileges.
I love libraries and books and I passed that love on to M when she was mere months old. If I can't find her it is usually because she is curled up with a book somewhere. I have always taught respect for the printed word so I was taken aback when M started tearing pages out of her books and magazines. I jumped on that right away and reiterated respect, but still the bizarre ripping stage continued. Because she had not torn any library books I thought we were in the clear. (Stupid mistake on my part.) It was the day before J was going to be sealed to us and I had my day planned almost to the minute when I realized I had not heard M in awhile. I went in her room and she had a library book open, a page torn, and was surrounded by spitballs. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! She had chewed up the page and spit it out. I am going to say it again...NO! Desperate times call for life lessons so I stopped all preparations threw M and J in the car and drove to the library explaining to M that we were going to tell the librarian what she had done. My fear was that the librarian was going to a) tell me to pay for the book. (I mean, we have all seen ripped and mended library books.) or b) tell M that her Mommy was overreacting. So before I said anything. I told the librarian that M was learning a life lesson. Then I plopped my girl who knew better on the counter and told the story and asked how she could make amends. That librarian sent us to the children's librarian where I repeated our story. With a serious voice and a twinkle in her eye the librarian said eating books was not good behavior and made other children miss out on words and illustrations. Thankfully, she felt M had made restitution by being honest. I explained to M that we could not check out books until I was sure she had learned to treat things with respect. I am pleased to announce that M has not added any more paper to her diet and she has regained her library book privileges.
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