Saturday, January 28, 2012

Leaving children in libraries

There's a debate raging on the mamamia website about leaving children unattended in libraries. I very stupidly got involved. First I read, then I wrote. Imagine my surprise when I realised that the people on there are continually ignoring what the actual librarians are saying - don't leave your kids in libraries alone.

But what did I expect? We deal with parents on a daily basis. Some are awesome, some are completely unhinged. We know it's no different online. Everyone thinks their kid is fine. Most middle to upper class parents (and lets face it, I think I know who the target demo is) think their child is a perfect angel. Bookish, smart, well-behaved.

BULLSHIT.

I was a very bookish, smart and well-behaved pre-teen. It didn't stop me cutting up a book that had nice pictures in it when I was 5. It also didn't stop me eating paper. It certainly didn't stop me reading some rather inappropriate things (Gore Vidal's Caligula for one). And I was supervised (clearly not well enough).

'My darling child would NEVER do anything like that. They know the boundaries'.

Well. I've read the debate, and both the author and publisher seem to be ignoring the fact that their kids might not be as perfectly behaved for us as they are for them.

Anyway. Mia is no Cherry. And that's my mean comment for the day.

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