Terrific!

Lex and I were driving, just the two of us, the other day, and he mentioned to me that a new, live action version of Charlotte’s Web is in the works. 

"Really?"  I said.  "I hope they don’t mess with it too much.  That’s one of my favorite kid’s books."

"What do you mean, mess with it?" he asked.

"You know; I hope there aren’t any poop jokes and other garbage to try and make it funny."

From there we had a fairly heated discussion about whether or not poop and fart jokes make things funnier.  Lex really and truly believes that any story, even Charlotte’s Web, is better with, well, a little excrement. 

I’m just crushed.  I feel like popular culture has swooped in and erased all those times that I read him thoughtfully and skillfully written books, doing my best to show him how much better the good stuff can be.  He loved Charlotte’s Web when I first read it to him, and I remember how we both cried at the end. 

I know this is the time where the opinions of his peers are becoming so all-important.  I know that I’m going to blink and  he’ll be a teenager with opinions radically different than mine.  I just have to figure out how to not let that bug me.

7 thoughts on “Terrific!

  1. Marsha

    I hate that age. I love the age when you tell them things and they listen and believe you. I love the age when they tell their teachers and friends, “My mommy said…” It sucks when they grow out of that great age, where you feel like you can identify with them on so many levels.

    All kids are different, but my kid argues just to argue sometimes. She likes to assert her individual identity by contradicting my core beliefs. She likes to argue to win, not to find a deeper meaning or to find truth. More often than not she hears me, but will never acknowledge that fact.

    Reply
  2. Dana

    The part about not letting it bug you is solved by remembering all the things you rolled your eyes at behind your parents’ backs and how, now, you realize they were right. Lex will go through the whole, “You know nothing! My friends know everything!” stage and it will drive you crazy and then.. suddenly, like magic, one day you’ll get a letter or phone call or email or a visit or a conversation in which it is revealed that you really ARE right.

    Of course, that day may be 40 years from now.. but let’s not focus on that. šŸ™‚

    Reply
  3. GraceD

    Yeah, soon he’ll be a teenager who will have parties at your house when you’re away in Tahoe, the little $%#@!

    Sorry dollin, I’m pissed at my kid.

    Reply
  4. marian

    Jen, this is soooooo temporary. Don’t worry. It doesn’t last. He’ll be a literary snob by the time he’s 18. Just enjoy this. It’s crazy and typical of the age. Laugh it off. Really.

    Reply
  5. menoblog

    I read Charlotte’s Web under the covers by the light on my electric blanket control. It is still one of my favorites.

    I cringe at the thought of the Hollywoodized version.

    Reply
  6. gwendomama

    okay, call me immature here (as if you didn’t know that already) but i think poop is funny too. i’m not sayin that charlotte’s web would be funnier with poop (‘Fern! Get that damn pig’s pen cleaned up – he shat out the word ‘stupendous’ again!’), but i AM sayin that lex probably cannot distinguish a necessary separation of those things at this stage in his humor development. and for quite a few years, unless he becomes (ack) a fratboy, in which case it is usually terminal.

    Reply
  7. Lin

    I’m laughing. Yeah, it’s temporary, but he’s also a boy and temporary stages seem to last for-effing-ever with a lot of boys!

    Reply

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