'Bringing up Daddy'
Bell, Robert H.
'BRINGING UP DADDY* TELLING TALES TO CHILDREN ODD AS IT sounds, I make my living diking about storks. I actually get paid for standing in front of a bund) of nice young men and women to...
...Goodnight, Mother dear.' "Good night, little bear...
...By the light of the...
...Let's examine some sample endings and pose a question I ask in English class: how does the ending address and/or resolve the issues raised by the story...
...Here, our daughter shows a sophisticated sense of humor, regularly foiling die expectations of me audience...
...It's so nice that I'm only mildly annoyed about the privileged position Mothers occupy in all these stories...
...A likely story — tell me another one — bardeharbar...
...Spot's Mommy asks him, "What have you been doing, Spot...
...Kaitlin...
...Brace is the Boss...
...Although these endings appear to have a pretty clear purpose, some kids' books can fool you...
...Well, once I discovered how easy it is to improvise, I began making other little substitutions...
...Although we have resolved to be the first academic parents in die history of civilization not to describe their kid as "precocious," I occasionally ask her to strut her stuff...
...Fortunately, I'm a fast reader and fairly quick on my feet, even when I'm sitting on my fanny...
...Babies are natural poets and our daughter fills in the rhyming words enthusiastically...
...Hey, I'm all for Moms — some of my favorite people are Moms — but a tittle dose of this stuff could give you diabetes...
...Seuss is pretty good...
...Wan, Two . . ." "One, Two . , . what comes after two...
...She says the narrator is me bunny rabbit lying in bed aod spinning out rhymes to avoid going to sleep...
...I'm not complaining, but it took a whole year before my daughter even noticed that she had a Dad...
...And what are all die stories about, besides going to sleep...
...Another ending worm careful attention is the denouement of Spot's First Walk...
...So when our daughter was bom I naturally looked forward to discovering some new stories and returning to some long-forgotten ones...
...She already understands how important Springsteen is...
...Star...
...Seuss would stick with lambs and cows, or invent clever rhymes for zebra and rhinoceros...
...17 May 1985: 297...
...Sappiest song since Debbie Reynolds's "Tammy...
...It's not easy staying cool while your baby carries on shamelessly with somebody else...
...Night...
...It's amazing bow many stories we have dial show a little girl just bow great Dad is...
...When he returns home, in the very last scene...
...I'll have to rethink Goodnight Moon...
...Now, at last...
...Gump rides a Wump...
...Moon...
...He finds a bone, a carrot, and several surprises...
...So I made a creative maneuver, left out the fire, and said Bambi's Mom was at The Clip Shop for two days waiting for her appointment...
...Spot's Mommy sends Spot on a walk, and be sticks his nose into everything...
...But the careful xe-reader thinks, "Nodiing...
...I always assume that the story is spoken by an omniscient narrator, somebody warm and wise and sweet, somebody who closely resembles Kaitlin's Daddy...
...Even in Peter Pan, when the Mother doesn't ever appear...
...I got the idea of changing the story when I was reading Bambi and found this unbelievable scene in which a forest fire offs Bambi's Mom...
...Boos...
...Another pleasure of children's boob b mat fee characters usually treat each other kindly...
...Everybody conies to little Bear's party and Mother Bear bakes a cake and says, "I promise never to forget your birthday...
...Sleep well" (Little Bear...
...The Beckers incidentally, were vefr impressed that Kaitlin got to five in only an hour sadat half...
...Kaitlin, show the Beckers bow you count to ten...
...And Spot says, "Nothing...
...What's a Mother?''they ask...
...I don't see the point in wiping out Mom...
...Except that he cheats, poetically speaking, by building rhymes around creatures' names: Zans opens cans, Mr...
...Our daughter at twenty months already has a highly-refined sense of irony...
...What I do is — shhh, don't tell anybody — I change the stories a wee bit...
...That's right, Kaitlin...
...My Baby Bunny voice isn't as convincing at my Omniscient Daddy voice...
...So Peter sings a tune about how great Moms are...
...From near to . . .""Far...
...They walked all...
...Children's books have strangely similar endings...
...What Spot has done, notice, is to give a textbook Illustration of irony: "saying one thing and meaning another...
...Peter Introduces Wendy to die Little Lost Boys by saying, "She can be your Mother...
...My wife has a tqcaOy different interpretation, and it's shaken me up...
...get to do things like play "Attack of the Tickle Monster'' or read Goodnight Moon...
...Now a naive reader might take that "Nothing" at face value...
...ROBERT H. BELL (Robert H. Bell teaches English at Williams College, and airs his humor in National Public Radio...
...I will play with you tomorrow" (Miffy in theSnow...
...Into a chicken coop, behind a fence, into a shed, up a tree, and into a garden...
...I actually get paid for standing in front of a bund) of nice young men and women to discuss things like Fielding's comic vision or Lear's moral growth...
...Every once in a while she'd glance up from this blissful little tete-a-tete with her Yummy Mummy, and she'd notice this pathetic oie guy hanging around twiddling his thumbs whistling "Dixie...
...who's the Boss...
...Everyone is sleeping...
...It's Indoor work with no heavy lifting, and I always enjoy it...
...Don't make a sound...
...r Commonweal: 296 "Shbh...
...According to my wife I have been misreading Goodnight Moon for six months...
...By the light of the...
...Five...
...I enjoy the way kids' books play with language...
...To encourage a child's pleasure with words...
...This love of rhymes is an exciting development, because before long' we can work up to the more complicated poetry of Bruce Springsteen...
...I wish Dr...
...With a year of baby books under my belt I'm ready to get up in front of people to discuss them...
...Ahhough I am tired of stories about how great Mom is...
...They're about how great Mom is...
...except the mouse" (Pfgs Soy Oink), "Goodnight, little bird," she called...
...After closing Son* and Lovers or A.Pauage to India, it's heertenihg to open Little Bear...
Vol. 112 • May 1985 • No. 10
