Did anyone else have a parent that couldn’t understand or even disliked your love of reading?
Did anyone else have a parent that couldn’t understand or even disliked your love of reading?
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When I was a kid I would read at night when I was supposed to be sleeping they had to threaten to take all the books out of my room ?
Disliked? Yikes! That must have been tough!
Yes! My mother used to get so angry with me & yell at me because I was “hibernating in my room” ?
Oh yes! I’ve heard that a time or two.
Yup! My parents would rather I be cleaning/doing miscellaneous chores all day, every day. They used to steal my books and hide them :-\
“Men don’t like women who read a lot”____said my mother…..wrong!
I had a wicked step mother who asked me why I couldn’t just watch tv like normal children. It wasn’t until I was older, and I realized she was literally the mom from Matilda.
Grandfather. He called it “pouting in the corner.” I called it unwillingness to engage in the the family pastime of screaming at each other.
I got grounded multiple times for reading instead of doing chores, going to bed, etc.. ?
So glad to hear I wasn’t the only one 🙂
My sister is not a reader, but one of her three children is a reader. She made sure that my niece spent time with me for that because my sister just cannot comprehend being a reader. My mother would only get mad if I was reading in the living room and she’d try to tell me something. I would tell her all of the time that if I wasn’t looking at her, I wasn’t listening. I am very lucky that my daughter is as much of a reader as I am. I have friends who try to figure out how to make their child a reader.
My mom would get angry that I’d devour my books. She’d buy me one and a few hours later I’d be done with it and ready for the next book in the series.
This! My mom loved that I loved to read but definitely hated buying me books. ?
Reading is the only thing I did that they understood.
@Stacy, I can relate. I was always the psychedelic sheep of my family, but we all agreed that “reading was FUNdamental”.
My mom never understood why I liked reading, because she didn’t, but she never stopped me from doing it.
I have a husband who “doesn’t get it.”
Me, too! He gets so annoyed if I read when he’s home.
No but an ex husband…emphasis on ex!
Didn’t like it, thought I should be doing more chores. We would move every Christmas and end of school year and my books would disappear with every move.
I would get in trouble for sneaking to read after lights out. Still love to read after everyone else is in bed asleep.
my husband doesn’t understand my love for reading. It bothers him so much that I spend my time reading.
I got in trouble all the time for it. I’d read at night with a flashlight, I’d read books too fast, I’d bring a book to the dinner table or out to a restaurant, I’d read my own books during class or church. My parents were not readers – still aren’t – and I have zero memories of either of them ever reading anything to me. Yet, I learned to read at an early age and never stopped.
My husband gets annoyed that my 10yo son would rather read my college history textbooks than play sports. Apparently that’s my fault. Blame I happily accept ?
My dad was always telling me to get my nose out of a book; put down that book & get outside; etc. Fast forward 10 years, and guess who is proofreading and writing the grievance for his union steward job..damn, it sucks to have a smart girl.
You are exactly my universe twin!!!
No. My parents always spent a lot of time picking out great books for us kids for Christmas. We also got a book for Epiphany! We all loved books and reading.
my mother would reward our weekend chores with three books at the library and we loved it! #madmommyskills
No but my stepmother got mad because I kept mailing my dad books. She didn’t like him with his nose buried in a book all day. Got him on the outlander series. Too bad he was not allowed to finish them!
@Holly This sounds like a Disney-style wicked stepmother!
Also….she may have benefitted GREATLY from those Outlander books, if you know what I mean.
Among other anti-intellectual terms, my father would call me an educated idiot. He would then brag to anyone who would listen about how smart I was.
Yes, I was grounded from books a couple of times
I had a stash hidden for just such occasions ?
Desperate times and all that!
My mother didn’t like it
Sad. I’m glad my mother was ok with it! Love you!
Matilda. Lol
No, my parents were also avid readers
My dad and I shared books. If they were books I knew my mom would be shocked I was reading at 13 I would hide them for him in our secret place. We kept that up until I went to college. He was reading a book I’d given him the day before the night he passed away in his sleep. It was bookmarked on his nightstand. ?
My mom is not a reader and did not understand it at all. When I was in elementary school, she saw it as a sign of intelligence and did a lot to encourage it, including buying me Nancy Drew books at the grocery store on a regular basis (why did they sell them at Kroger?)
As I got older, she went from bemused to offended. She felt like I was avoiding her. She took it personally. She worried that I wasn’t balancing my time appropriately. She tried to get me interested in clothes and makeup and the “real world.”
When I asked for books for Christmas, I got them. She was proud of how much I read and bragged about it to her friends, but at home there was always an unspoken tension that made me feel a little guilty and a lot determined.
No, mine encouraged it thankfully.
I can tell you that as a teacher it’s a battle sometimes with parents/admin on finding time to implement daily reading time in class. Not for points or classwork, but purely for the love of reading. My 4th grade partner and I also read every single day after lunch to our students. When we get pushback about it, we always explain that it’s sometimes the only time some kids get read to. It’s just so, so critical and important.
@Chelsea yes!! I teach high school and read to them as much as I can. We usually pick a “fun” book to read alongside our curriculum picks, and that’s the one I’ll read out loud to them. They love it.
I was a top reader in my school and my parents seriously bragged about it to EVERY single person we knew! Neither of my parents are readers but they loved that I was.
My parents loved that I read – except during vacations. Most of my vacation memories are of my dad screaming “get your head out of that book and look outside the car!” ?
Nope. Mom was an avid reader and I’m fairly certain my roughneck turned company man father enjoyed the fact that he had a daughter with a brain. Even if I did run up on the rig floor barefoot on occasion ?
My step dad.
Not really, but growing up my mom would encourage me to go outside and play. Cut to me sitting in the yard reading. Lol
I still loved running around with the neighborhood kids (hello, street games, I’m looking at you ?) and I was an avid tennis player, but reading was my first go-to activity.
My mom was a reader, my dad was a slow reader but he would remember everything he read. They would make me go outside and play but I usually snuggled a book out with me
Yes
Nope. My mama encouraged it. I wasn’t allowed to watch Saturday morning cartoons, I could either read or do chores.
No! My parents were both readers, and my grandmother was a huge reader. I used to stay with her every other weekend, and every Sunday morning we would wake up early, have breakfast, sit and read together.?❤️
No, I got it from my mama ? my dad however, is definitely not a reader.
Nobody in my family reads like I do, my parents encouraged me as a child, I was/am an introvert. So at a very young age my dad told me he would buy my books forever. Yep! And I’m 37 and I have his CC on my kindle account 😉 I’m sure he regrets that one big time!
@Allison – I love this. I would pay for my daughter’s books until her eyes gave out from old age. I’m sure it makes him happy.
Thank goodness, no. My mom loved to read and my father, while not a reader, often took me to the library so that I could check out a dozen books or so. I haven’t thought about that in years, so thank you for that good memory.
My father hated it, because he himself could barely read. So every other weekend it was insults when he drank… unfortunately I can say yes to this one. ?
Same, Andrea. Some wounds never really heal. Sending hugs.
Neither of my parents or my only sibling were readers, but no one cared that I was. It did help keep me from constantly asking them the question, “Why….?” or “How?” or “When?” But then one night, they caught me with the flashlight under the blankets late at night reading away. Busted.
Both my parents encouraged reading. My dad was a ravenous reader of history. When he passed away my brother’s car trunk was so loaded with his books we didn’t think he would be able to drive. My mom loved mysteries. I’m so happy my love of reading came from them.
My dad would get angry that my nose was always in a book. Would yell for me to get outside. My mom never understood my reading habit but it only angered her that I would read by the nightlight when I should have been sleeping.
My mom, despite being an elementary school teacher AND having a masters in literacy education, famously yelled at my sisters and I one to day to “stop reading!!” We still joke about it
I have always been a chunky but funky girl. In high school almost every summer there was a new Harry Potter book. I remember reading the new one on our front porch. My grandfather dropped in and said to me ‘ya know reading won’t help you lose weight’. And man, did that hit me hard. My parents were always thrilled I was a reader as neither of them are.
Change that from grandfather to father and it is my life. Well, and I am old enough the Harry Potter books came out waaaay after I was out of school. (Still went to the bookstore at midnight to get the new one.)
My mom hates reading so as much as she doesn’t understand my love for it, i can’t understand her dislike for it lol, and it makes me sad!!
Thank God we were a family of readers, so it was encouraged
My family definitely fed my habit. #Enablers
I can’t imagine that. How sad! Growing up, my parents read to us, my dad was always reading. My mom, not so much. My sister is an avid reader, as am I. Now, my mom is retired and reads for pleasure.
The biggest disappointment in my life thus far, is that neither of my children are readers. They read for school, and even admit to enjoying the books they choose, but never just read for the simple joy of it.
My husband hated when I read. Never understood the draw of hunkering down with a good book. Needless to say, for that and many others, he’s not my husband anymore! ?
No, thank God! My kids are all readers, too!
Thank goodness my mom is a reader! I learned from her example, and it is one good thing I taught our son by example!
No but I have a good friend who teaches third grade and I once asked her what she liked to read. She told me she hated reading. What?!? How are you going to foster the love of reading as someone who hates reading?!?
I can not even imagine that.
Nope, my mom still loves to say that she never said no when I asked her to buy a book. She also said she used to forget I was in the backseat long trips when I had my nose stuck in a book. ❤️
Neither of my parents read but my grandfather did. Both were supportive of both my brother and I. My mom always says that she doesn’t get why we love to read but she thinks it’s wonderful
No—Mom loved reading. We would walk to library and carry bags of books home
Nope, my parents read to me and encouraged me to learn to read by the time I was 3. Their only lament as I got older was that I would read too fast, and they’d ask that I at least wait til I got the book home. ??
I would get in trouble with my daddy for reading on summer vacation and not doing chores.
I was lucky. I grew up with parents who read to me.
Yup, one loved to read and the other hated our love of reading
Yes. Still bewilders him
No, my parents were happy I was reading except they both had this unreasonable rule I couldn’t do it when we went out to dinner. They insisted I be social and talk to the other adults when I didn’t care about their topics and I had a perfectly great book sitting in my pink, quilted purse. I played along, but I pulled it out as they draggeeddddd out the meal by having coffee at the end. I wasn’t going to socialize after the food was gone, no way.
@Cheryl, I had many similar dinners with my parents and their friends.
Nope. My parents, who are not big readers, have always been thrilled by and admired my love to read.
No, my mom was an avid reader and we enjoyed sitting together quietly reading ❣️ I’m sorry the same isn’t for you – but can starat your own and share it.
only my inlaws. my parents supported my book habit!
No, that’s such a foreign concept to me, both my parents really encouraged us to read a lot, we are a family of book lovers
Yes! My mom didn’t like to read much; I got my love of reading from my dad. She would want me to come out of my room and watch tv with the family! ?
Noooo!
So long story short my parents HATED when a new Harry Potter book came out because I wasn’t old enough to drive myself to get the book at midnight so I begged them every year to take me at midnight to get the new book. Lol. That’s really the only time they disliked me reading.
No, thankfully my parents not only understood it but they encouraged it to the point that my dad bought me my own set of Encyclopedia Brittanica and my mom always passed her books on to me
My mothers maiden name was Reeder. it is LITERALLY in my dna lol
My dad doesn’t get the voracious reading, but they never discouraged me. Although they did have to ground me from my books when I was younger because being sent to my room was never a punishment hahahaha.
Nope. My mom and I would sit next to each other and read for hours.
No, my parents were all about reading. From my first days they read to me. From my children’s first days, I read to them. 🙂 I’m sorry for anyone who wasn’t encouraged in their love of reading. And I’m proud of those who stood strong and kept at it! 🙂
So parents discouraged reading? That’s foreign to me. It almost borders on child abuse.
Neither of my parents were readers but were totally supportive. Mom would buy me books all the time and even went to the library for me with a list when I had a super long bus commute. ?
Just the opposite – my mom read to me all the time. I have pictures of me with books and I have lots of memories of us going to a book store in town decades ago, regularly. Books were something she never said no to me when I asked for. Well, I take that back. I remember being about 10ish and wanting to read Wifey by Judy Blume and she refused. I was mad/shocked and didn’t understand because I had all of the Judy Blume books. It wasn’t until years later that I realized why I couldn’t read it. I’ve still not read it. lol I also ready to my kids from when they were in my belly until they were old, but they never shared my love of reading. They loved being read to and reading to and with me, but reading on their own was not something they did. That always made me sad for them. Now they are adults, still not really readers. My daughter will read occasionally, but other than the sports section, my boys don’t read.
My mom yelled at me as we traveled to look out the window instead of having “my nose in a book.” But, I have more memories of her reading to me whilst sitting at the kitchen island. Our school didn’t have its own library so the public library would send boxes of books to us for a period of time. We could get two books at a time. Mom would read those to me every day. She also let me order from the Scholastic book form. We didn’t have a lot of money so that was a really big deal. She definitely supported my love of reading…even if she didn’t quite understand it.
Neither of my parents were readers but my mom would take me to the library whenever I asked. She always said to others: ‘its the only thing she sits still for”.
I’m sorry for you my darling.
That is sad. My parents and older sisters read 3-5 books weekly. I didn’t know until I got to college that was unusual.
Yes, my mother would say “Susan get your nose out of that book!!!”
My mother was a huge bookworm and modeled her love of reading to me. My father would get irritated at her and in turn at me for reading so much .
My mom liked that I read, but it bothered her that all I ever wanted was books
None of my family had my love of reading☹️but it certainly saved me from some of the quarrels. When I discovered the library at school, I was in heaven. Guess I ignored them and got carried away in my book.
My parents read to me when I was little, but my mom never enjoyed reading for herself. She didn’t understand my love of reading and would often call me “odd” or “weird” if I chose to stay in and read rather than go hang out with friends. She is and was a wonderful mama, she just didn’t get me. Thankfully, my dad was (almost) as big a book nerd as I was, so he fed my addiction, and never made me feel bad about it lol
We had some books. If i wanted to read I hopped on my bike and rode myself to the public library. We didn’t have extra money to buy new books. I’ll never forget wanting SOOOO bad to order Scholastic Books from school and only one time my entire years K-6 did i get to order one book….that’s why now as a teacher i try to buy scholastic books for my students who i know love to read but parents don’t buy books…
Not a parent, but a teacher. True story: in first grade, my teacher wanted to hold me back because I preferred to read rather than go outside for recess. She told my mother that I was “Socially retarded”. My mother insisted that I be promoted to second grade, and I became a fully functioning human being. Well, it was the early 70’s, things were weird.
@Charyll what does “fully functional” mean? Asking for a friend. ?
@Charyll my second grade teacher in 1973 popped my bottom with the book Strawberry Girl when she caught me reading it under my desk…I will never forget that ?…so yes, things were weird in the ‘70’s!
I grew up in a very evangelical household. My father (and the church as a whole) thought that girls should’ve been spending their time reading the Bible, but didn’t say anything about the boys reading what they wanted to, not like they did anyway. A frequent complaint at home was that my avid reading made me unattractive because I had opinions and didn’t want to socialize with other kids who weren’t as well-read.
My parents did censor what I read at home. For example, I was allowed to read the YA series of my youth, but I could only read the ones that weren’t about boys or dating, usually the most boring books. I kept books I wanted to read at school. This is the major reason why I have such a large 80s/90s YA collection.
Ex-husbands #1 and 2 did not like to read. Soon-to-be-ex-husband only liked to read Christian stuff, basically books that told men that wives who weren’t submissive weren’t good women to have as a wife. He also complained that I read (and thought) too much.
Run!!!
My grandmother had 9 kids If a kid was reading they were not told to do chores Hence, 9 readers!
Nope, not even close. Both my parents were avid readers and read to me all the time until I could read for myself. My best early memories were of sitting in one of their laps and being read my favorite stories. My brother didn’t read as much, he preferred more active pursuits but even he read comics regularly. I was in junior high before I found out all families didn’t read like ours.
I always read to my girls & when they were old enough to read the rule was ,you can stay up reading as late as you want if you are quiet and stay in bed.