One Star Childrens Book Review..Funny

[MsMe]

Today on facebook a friends status was about tring to take a bath and her three kids not letting her have a monemts peace. It reminded me of a book I had as a child that we still read at daycare called Five Minutes Peace. I looked it up on Amazon and posted it to her page.

Then I saw the reviews...I really like to read one star reviews. They are normaly from the cronicly unhappy or the completly crazy. This one is pretty silly This mayalso be a sign that times (and parenting) have gone completly crazy. This book was written in 1986 and does not fit in with her 'never hurt my childrens feelings' style....I read it nearly everyday and I don't think it damaged me at all

http://www.amazon.com/review/RCMFVE2FX01M/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1844285391&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=#wasThisHelpful

p.s my favorites are one star cruise reviews.....some even compain about being on a ship for seven days!:confused:

[MsMe]

copy and pasted from Amazon....the review.....

I don't understand all the positive reviews for this book. It goes against so much of the parenting we practice in our house. First of all, the mother, Mrs. Large, says something we'd consider hurtful in our house--she says she wants a bath "Because I want five minutes' peace from all of YOU." The artwork shows a really cross mom looking at sad, hurt little kids.

Then, to top that off, the pattern of the book is that the mother lets the kids walk all over her. She asks them to stay downstairs and they don't (no consequences from the mom). When interrupted in her bath, she asks her older son to limit his interruption to one song, then he plays it over three times (no consequences from the mom). She asks her daughter to read one page, and her daughter reads five (no consequences from the mom). All the while, Mrs. Large looks more and more frustrated, and more and more the "pity-me" victim.

Finally, fed up with the kids trying to be with her and not listening to her, she leaves the bathroom and again (angry looking while her kids look sad) says "I want five minutes' peace from all of YOU."

Seriously, this book is a twisted view of how we should communicate and treat our kids--and a really sad portrayal of how some moms think they're the victim of their own kids, when really all the kids want is clear communication, fairness, and respect. If you don't want your kids to treat you like a doormat, don't *be* a doormat...and certainly, don't get angry at your kids because you've taught them you ARE a doormat.

If you're looking for a book with this same theme, but not nearly so troubling, try "The Seven Silly Eaters." There, too, the mother gets stressed and overworked by her kids, but there isn't passive aggressive nastiness in that book...and in the end the children learn how to help out.

[Hunni Bee]

We have the book she mentioned, "The Seven Silly Eaters"....another story about a totally over-tolerant mom who ends up completely stressed out by her kids.

One of our favorites, because they know that would never happen here or at home

[grandmom]

I love 5 Minutes Peace.

So do my dcchildren.

[spud912]

I like this 2-star rating:

I had this book read to me a lot as a child, it was one of my mother's favorites. She'd laugh along with it - very much relating to the mother in the book.

As a child, I saw that the mother wanted peace and quiet, the kids made the mother upset. In my waking memory, roughly the third time the book was read - I saw that my mother really identified with the mother, and saw how much the mother wanted to get away from the children, and how much the mother didn't enjoy having the children around most of the time - even though all is well in the end - and because my mother liked this book so much, I came to realize that perhaps my mother didn't like having her children (us) around very much.

I don't think this is a good book for parents to read to their children a lot. Perhaps once or twice, but too many times, your child will get the impression that children, and children doing what they do best, are unwelcome and unwanted - which is not what a child should feel in relation to their parents.

To parents, the book may be entertaining and well intentioned, but children take things too literally and personally, and may ultimately be hurt by the book.

Sounds like someone has repressed mother issues!

[MsMe]

I like this 2-star rating:



Sounds like someone has repressed mother issues!

I read this book as a child a lot ad it had the opposite effect on me.....I thought I should give my Mom more peace....


Funny how people can take one childrens book so literaly!!!