Reading Too Much

We’re a family of readers. Wifegrit and I have always been readers — when we were dating, we’d sometimes snuggle up on the couch and read rather than watch TV. We read to both boys before bedtime when they were younger, before they could read to themselves. We still read to Calfgrit7 at bed time, but he can read a lot on his own, now, too. We are a family who loves books.

Calfgrit11 is a constant reader. It’s actually a problem. (Can you believe a parent is saying that reading is a problem?) We’re overjoyed that our son likes to read. We really, truly are. But we’re also just so frustrated because he reads too much.

If he takes a book to the dinner table, he’ll forget to eat. If he takes a book with him into the bathroom, he’ll sit on the toilet for an hour. He’ll take a book with him when we go to the store, and he’ll read it in the car on the way to the store, he’ll read while walking through the parking lot, and he’ll read while we shop in the store. When he’s supposed to be cleaning his room, or getting ready for shower and bed, or getting ready for school in the morning, he often gets distracted and lost in reading a book. We’ll go find him in his room half dressed/undressed, sitting on the floor reading a book.

At school, he hides books in his desk and pulls one out to read when he’s supposed to be doing other work. He has missed hearing the teacher give assignments because he was reading. He has failed to complete assignments, (or do any at all), because he was reading. He’ll sneak his book out and keep it below the level of his desk so he can read without the teacher seeing the book.

We’ve had to seriously curtail his reading. We’ve banned books from the bathroom and dinner table. We make him close his book when we’re walking through a parking lot. And we’ve discussed things with his teachers so they take his books away when they catch him reading at inappropriate times, (but he can get them back when his other work is complete). That’s right: his teachers confiscate his books, (with our full support). Not comic books, not inappropriate books, but good and legitimate books for his age — like Rick Riordan novels, non-fiction history books, Star Wars novels, science magazine articles, etc. His teacher often has one to three of his books sitting on her desk.

He reads so much and so fast that he sometimes reads a book twice before he can get back to the library to get another, (and Wifegrit checks out a tall stack of books for everyone when she goes to the library). We’ve bought him several of his favorites, and he’s read some of them three times or more. It’s crazy.

We love, love, love that he reads. But God forgive me for saying this, he just reads too much.

Bullgrit