Booking through Thursday is a weekly meme about books and reading. This weeks question is: What do you think of censoring books BECAUSE of their intended age? Say, books too “old” for your kids to read?I am currently unmarried, so I don't have any children, but when I was younger my mother was very careful about what she let me read. She always made sure to go through books that weren't in our particular age group first, and if there was something she found objectionable she would just tell us not to read that part. My mother was very good in the "censoring" area. Sometime parents can be a bit overprotective in these areas for whatever reason, but my mother never did it in a way that made us feel she was trying to control us. She just had a lot of faith in us to respect her wishes to keep us away from things that she felt we didn't need to subject ourselves to yet. When we were older she would let us choose our own books, trusting that from all she had taught us, we would then "censor" the material ourselves, and discuss whatever sort of "content" we came across in the book. I hope to emulate this quality when I have my own children, because I feel it really helped me a lot. I am still very careful about what I read. It is another reason why I have a content rating, for parents, or young adult/adults like me who are also careful.
Interesting answer. I think if my Mum had done that to me I would not love reading as much as I do. I think reading really helped me learn as I was growing up and censoring what I read would have damaged that in some way.
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http://theelifylop.blogspot.com/2011/05/booking-through-thursday-18.html
I can't remember my mom ever going through a book I wanted to read first. But then, the only book I remember reading that maybe was a little to old for me was a book I had to do a book report on for school. Strange, huh?
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@Sally: I do not want you to misunderstand what I have written so I will clarify she only went through books that were not in our age group (such as when I was 9 if I wanted to read a YA novel she would just read it first) but after we hit 12 she allowed us to judge for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI like your answer, because your mother clearly knew what she believed and held onto that. And that you respected her judgement as well.
ReplyDeleteI was a stubborn child and deliberately read a lot of "adult" books simply because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. And because I was pretty much the only one who read in my family, I got away with reading things that I probably shouldn't have. My parents would check the title and cover, and that was it. Also, I grew up being read and reading the Bible and after that I doubt there's anything my parents would find objectionable in any of the books I read without being hypocritical.
I love your mom's practice. I think it is a good balance of parenting and trust.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great system. It's very rare to find that kind of faith and trust yet firm standards in any relationship. :D
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