Last Updated on: 25th March 2014, 12:06 pm
When I read this story, I almost cried.
A library in Prince Edward Island has set up a way that kids can phone in and have a story read to them over the phone. This is because, more and more often, parents just don’t have time to read to their kids anymore, and some of the kids don’t even know the nursery rhymes.
Doesn’t the image of a kid being told to phone a number to get his bedtime stories break your heart? Curling up with a phone just doesn’t have the same appeal as reading with your mom or dad. Man. If you don’t have the time to read to your kids at least some of the time, something has to go.
We were such little tyrants as kids. We would ask for stories, and mom, even if she was tired, would try to read to us. But after a while, the sentences stopped making sense because her eyes were starting to close, but she was still trying to read aloud, so she started to read diagonally. We’d all laugh at her and tell her it wasn’t making any sense, and she would try again, until she just couldn’t read anymore. Laying on her bed while she read us Ramona books, or some story about a mouse named Ralph, or whatever she read to us made some pretty sweet memories. It’s scary that some kids just don’t get that. It makes me think Ray Bradbury’s the velt, a story in which the parents provide all the material things their kids could ever want, but never have time to give them the love and affection they need, is more real than he ever imagined.