“What do you do for fun?” the dental hygienist asked me this week. That’s a question I rarely get anymore – and a topic I rarely think about. In this season of parenting, it’s still mostly about the kids.
“Well, I read with my boys,” I offered.
“They still let you? At their ages?”
“I insist,” I explained, and even though the older one sometimes complains, he’s usually glad we do read together. Often our discussion of a book continues days after we’re done reading it.
We’ve just recently finished reading The Yearling – all 509 pages of it – and I’m sad that it’s over I told my kids. “So that’s why you were crying,” my younger son joked. I pointed out that we’d been reading the book long enough to feel like we knew the characters and were invested in the story. We all were rooting for Jody.
I appreciate being able to pick up a book at dull moments and find ourselves transported to another time and another place. The boys do too. Our 11-year-old is the one who most often asks, “Mom, can you read now?”
But the older surprised me about a year ago when I asked him, “What to your parents do that makes you feel loved?”
He said, “Read to us, I guess, because you could be doing other things — or you could just read to yourself…”
first teacher 
Wow!! Excellent parenting and your boys will always treasure these times of reading together!
I remember some of the times Dad read to us…not the story so much, but the time together.
Yes, although I remember him reading some of “Uncle Wiggly’s Happy Days,” when the book was brand new.
Hi Anita– this is Cyd Haynes,
Clair’s friend. I happened to read your blog entry about reading to your boys. My son, who is now 50, just commented about how much he enjoyed me reading to him, even as a teenager. The book he remembers most was, The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson… loved hearing your thoughts & what good memories you’re making. Read on !📚🤸✝️