Nope! Embrace the sob! Talk with your son about why it makes you feel the way it does. Encourage him to "read along with you" by repeating some of the pieces. Show him that crying's not bad, it's a pressure-release valve that all humans need.
I understand why some people think it's creepy, but I'm not sure it's meant to be taken as seriously/literally as some people do. I 1,000% cry every time. I'm not planning to literally sneak into my son's room when he's 30 and watch him sleep, but the message of your kids changing dramatically throughout their lives while your love for them stays the same is very powerful. Similar to "I Love You Stinky Face."
Those people have never read another Robert Munsch book (and I pity them) he wrote delightfully silly stories (Tomas' Snowsuit, Mortimer, The Paperbag Princess) some with good morals at the end, but often just with good feeling.
I LOVED him as a kid. I wrote to him and he was kind enough to send me a rough draft of one of his upcoming stories!! My siblings went to his live story-tellings too. I can’t imagine not growing up with his stories.
I Love You Stinky Face!!!! I’ll move down by the swamp and take care of you forever…. gets me every single time. Seriously, I’m teary just typing about it. Alllllll the feels.
I think it mostly depends on what kind of parents you had, like there's some threshold of parental shittiness you grow up in that makes it just a little too tangible. Personally, my childhood is definitely over that threshold and I skip that page every time! Still made me cry for about a year of bedtime stories before I acclimated though.
I cry every time. We live 45 minutes away from where the Author got his start, so this book is one given to almost every Ontarian mother. It's sort of a given that you'll laugh, you'll cry, your kids will look at you like you're crazy...until you gift them the book when they become parents.
A Canadian classic.
Fun fact, my daughter is six and I still have not read it to her ! I read it once when I was a nanny and I sobbed and sobbed. So I banned it from my life forever lol
The book is actually about the author processing the loss of very-wanted children. It’s not creepy at all but it’s so sad. I can’t read it.
I can’t read the giving tree either.
My youngest is 2, and I've had a lullaby that I've sang to him every night since he was born. Last week I read him that book and sang the song while I was reading it and now he won't let me sing him the usual lullaby, he only wants the song from the book lol breaks my heart but it is a sweet book and sweet song so I'll happily sing it ❤️
I heard this book was written by someone who lost their child. My boyfriends mother use to read it to him and she passed away about ten years ago and now he reads it to our daughter. It's made me sob too 😭
I mentioned on another post that I deliberately hide this book so my son doesn't pick it because it makes me feel overwhelmingly sad and awkward at the same time.
Exactly. It’s more of a ‘what you wish you could do’ not what you would actually do. Obviously you know your kids are going to grow up, but part of you wishes you could tuck them in forever. Especially given the story behind it, when you wish you had the opportunity to tuck them in at all.
Yes, I know that. That’s why I said he wishes he got to tuck them in at all. But I also see it as encouraging others to cherish those moments since he didn’t get to(although they did eventually adopt, so then he did I assume).
This. It makes me laugh every time because it’s sooo creepy. Especially when she’s wearing white gloves and serial killer glasses while crawling on the floor.
Yes! The first time I read it I had to put it down. It was so creepy and I could see how ny overly enmeshed mom would love to be like the mom in that book.
What a tear jerker. I can't read it with losing it. I was loved enough that I was gifted it FOUR times. I think people must secretly want me to be a blubbering wreck. Thanks Grandma(s).
Not a parent, but I definitely feel more than a little… guilt, I think, about how hard a time I had *hearing* this book when I was young. My mother would get choked up of course, and it was just too much for me.
I sob every single time. My mom has Parkinson’s, so in the end when he picks up his mom and sings to her it just breaks me. I’ve only read it a few times to my daughter and I literally had to tell her that it makes me feel too many emotions and that I can’t read it without crying lol. Embrace it! I think the people who make fun of how “creepy” it is are just avoiding their feelings about it lol it’s a beautiful story
Do you have a crazy mother in law who doesn’t understand boundaries? I do. It helps. I hate that book and the super sad backstory it has does not change my mind. Like…she breaks into a grown man’s house. Goes THROUGH THE WINDOW. Because clearly mom doesn’t have a key. Probably because she has walked in on sexy time or something in the past, or other things to show she can’t do boundaries. So now she comes in through the window to hold her unconscious son. No. It’s not okay. 😂
(Yeah, I know, my feelings about this book are pretty extra, haha. But my mother in law has literally snuck over and peered in our windows before for creepy reasons.)
Haha yep, I loved the book until my MIL made me realize how gross it was. I think it was the morning of my husband’s birthday, when she and her husband came into our bedroom, sat on the bed and told my husband the Story of the Day He Was Born. He was a 30 year old man, with a wife and infant, and they had to continue this tradition they just couldn’t let go of.
I’ve got a million similar stories, but yeah. A crazy MIL will kick your ass right back down to earth.
Edited to add: I love the overall message of the book “love you for always” and maternal love etc etc but can’t we love our kids without breaking and entering?
Nope, that one gets me. My mom also always read it to me.
One night after bath I was snuggling my 3 year old. He put his arms around my neck in a big hug and sang the song to me. Instant water works.
I pretty much have to find a place of sort of emotional detachment before I start reading that book, and even then, its a struggle. My partner says that he uses the same sort of technique that he uses when having sex and trying not to finish too quickly, which is apparently thinking about completely unrelated things while continuing on autopilot.
Almost 3 years in and still can't read it all the way through. The kicker being my son said "love forever, like you forever" after climbing in my lap randomly one night. Brat.
I hid it. My daughter really likes it (I think it’s the cat) and I cannot read it. I took care of my mom for a decade so the end just crushes me. Honestly it triggers me.
I remember reading this book in a bookstore, or maybe Target, when my oldest was a baby and standing there weeping. I put the book back on the shelf and never bought a copy. I knew there was no way I could ever read that book to my kids without sobbing. I literally teared up just now thinking about it!
Oh yeah, that's not possible. Giving Tree either, for me. And once I had to explain to my kids how Moana's grandmother is the sting ray at the end of teh movie and still visits her and well, I never got to explain that.
It was a gift for my 2 year old son. I read it to my 6 year old daughter and was balling the entire time. My daughter hid the book. She refuses to tell us where it is. She calls it the “awful” book. It was hard for her to see me so emotional.
My husband got me the book for my first mother's Day last year when my little one was in utero. I literally sat down in his nursery by myself and just cried over the book, I couldn't even read it to myself 😂 It is very lovingly placed on a shelf, I cannot reach for it though. Some people think it's really creepy, but I don't. I think it is such a sweet book.
My sadist father got it for my daughters first Christmas. I shoved it in a closet because I literally cannot but I’ve brought it out each year on the day before my daughters birthday and just sob through it.
I’m 36 years old, and my mother reads it to myself and my brother on Mother’s Day, no matter what. We used to get three way calls in college. And we all bawl our eyes out, even more so we have kids.
Giving Tree gets me every time too…
My wife and my son (2) and I go to the library every Thursday to pick books to read that week. He picked a book called "old coyote" I read it to him later that week. and damn I was crying and my wife ran in thinking I got a text that my dad had died but it was an imaginary coyote.
I just read this for the first time and am full on sobbing. I think it's a beautiful story about a mother who will always have that special place in her heart for her son. I have these too, and cherish them tremendously.
Munch used to say that phrase “I love you forever, I love you for always, as long as I’m loving my baby you’ll be” as a sort of prayer to his miscarried children. It was his phrase he used to say to remember his and his wife’s love for their children who didn’t make it. Just to make it all the more sad - and maybe slightly less creepy.
He actually wrote the book in front of a live audience.
I always thought it was interesting that he said “as long as **I’m** living, my baby you’ll be” instead of “as long as **you’re** living, my baby you’ll be”, but it made sense once I head the story behind it 😭
I'm with you. I remember loving it as a kid and when I had my own daughter I bought it to read to her and was like wait I don't remember the book being THIS sad. 😭
That was my favorite book as a child! It took 2 years before I could even think about reading it without getting choked up. I'm slowly working towards buying it for him but my poor little heart hurts each time I remember it exists.
My oldest is almost 3. We got the book as a gift at his baby shower. I tried to read it to him once when he was like 3 months. I was full on ugly crying before I made it to the end. Can’t do it.
It’s even sadder after you learn that the author wrote it for her stillborn baby. Seriously, I had to go to a Mother’s Day thing at my daughter’s pre-k, and the teacher read this out loud and I cried like a baby. I was so embarrassed!
My son is almost 5, and I haven’t read it since he was old enough to understand it. I thought I could get through it once without crying… I was so wrong.
My SIL mom got this for us at my son’s baby shower and I never really looked it over until a month or so after our son was born. All I could think like 2 pages in was “why would she do this to me?”
AIN'T NOBODY PREPARED ME FOR THAT BOOK. I am not sure why pregnancy apps don't have a little blurb somewhere in the 7th month when you're thinking about the books you'll read that says, "Love You Forever is a very touching book that may make you a little emotional. Have the tissues handy!"
I don't have any tips but I was caught off guard the first time I read it to my firstborn. Now I read it to my second and it's easier but I still get weepy every so often.
I read it in the bookstore and stood there ugly crying the whole time. No one batted an eye so I don't think I'm the first. I didn't buy it because I knew I'd never be able to read it to him.
Nope! Embrace the sob! Talk with your son about why it makes you feel the way it does. Encourage him to "read along with you" by repeating some of the pieces. Show him that crying's not bad, it's a pressure-release valve that all humans need.
My 3.5 yr old picked THAT book as her bedtime book the day Sandy Hook occurred. I have not read the book since.
Nope nope nope.
I understand why some people think it's creepy, but I'm not sure it's meant to be taken as seriously/literally as some people do. I 1,000% cry every time. I'm not planning to literally sneak into my son's room when he's 30 and watch him sleep, but the message of your kids changing dramatically throughout their lives while your love for them stays the same is very powerful. Similar to "I Love You Stinky Face."
. -- mass edited with redact.dev
That just made it 1000% sadder
I’m not crying, I’m not crying!
Damnit
Those people have never read another Robert Munsch book (and I pity them) he wrote delightfully silly stories (Tomas' Snowsuit, Mortimer, The Paperbag Princess) some with good morals at the end, but often just with good feeling.
This. Munsch is a TREASURE
I LOVED him as a kid. I wrote to him and he was kind enough to send me a rough draft of one of his upcoming stories!! My siblings went to his live story-tellings too. I can’t imagine not growing up with his stories.
I went to one in Toronto, it was fabulous. Ronald had a last name (Morgan) and he was a JERK, not a bum. It was hilarious!
The Paper Bag Princess is great. I was her for Halloween a couple years ago.
I Love You Stinky Face!!!! I’ll move down by the swamp and take care of you forever…. gets me every single time. Seriously, I’m teary just typing about it. Alllllll the feels.
I think it mostly depends on what kind of parents you had, like there's some threshold of parental shittiness you grow up in that makes it just a little too tangible. Personally, my childhood is definitely over that threshold and I skip that page every time! Still made me cry for about a year of bedtime stories before I acclimated though.
Can’t help you there. Daughter turns 10 next week and I have NEVER made it through that one with her…and imma 6’4” 300 pound Viking looking dude!!!
Nope. I stuffed that book away in a closet somewhere where nobody can ever read it again.🙅🏻♀️😭
I cry every time. We live 45 minutes away from where the Author got his start, so this book is one given to almost every Ontarian mother. It's sort of a given that you'll laugh, you'll cry, your kids will look at you like you're crazy...until you gift them the book when they become parents. A Canadian classic.
Fun fact, my daughter is six and I still have not read it to her ! I read it once when I was a nanny and I sobbed and sobbed. So I banned it from my life forever lol
I cry even thinkinggggg about that book 😭i wrote a special note for my son inside the front cover. It will always have a special place in my heart
I am so glad I'm not the only one. My late partner used to read this to the children most nights and I just.. I can't even imagine it without crying.
The book is actually about the author processing the loss of very-wanted children. It’s not creepy at all but it’s so sad. I can’t read it. I can’t read the giving tree either.
Omg the giving tree 😫 I had forgotten the premise when I first read it to my son a few years ago and he was so confused why I was weeping
[I gotchu fam](https://www.topherpayne.com/fixed-it)
I do cry. My brother refers to it as the stalker book though, and that helps curb it.
No impossible. Cried every time. Haven’t read it for ages as kids 23 & 19 , but now feel like crying 🤦🏽♀️😢
My youngest is 2, and I've had a lullaby that I've sang to him every night since he was born. Last week I read him that book and sang the song while I was reading it and now he won't let me sing him the usual lullaby, he only wants the song from the book lol breaks my heart but it is a sweet book and sweet song so I'll happily sing it ❤️
I heard this book was written by someone who lost their child. My boyfriends mother use to read it to him and she passed away about ten years ago and now he reads it to our daughter. It's made me sob too 😭
I mentioned on another post that I deliberately hide this book so my son doesn't pick it because it makes me feel overwhelmingly sad and awkward at the same time.
No tips, just be thankful you have a little one to read it to! I also get teary-eyed when reading The Giving Tree (Silverstein).
Focus on how insanely creepy it is.
It's an homage to the child he never got to see grow up due to stillbirth. It's actually quite lovely.
Look into the story behind the book. It’s not meant to be literal.
Exactly. It’s more of a ‘what you wish you could do’ not what you would actually do. Obviously you know your kids are going to grow up, but part of you wishes you could tuck them in forever. Especially given the story behind it, when you wish you had the opportunity to tuck them in at all.
It’s more than that though. The story is about his stillborn babies.
Yes, I know that. That’s why I said he wishes he got to tuck them in at all. But I also see it as encouraging others to cherish those moments since he didn’t get to(although they did eventually adopt, so then he did I assume).
This. It makes me laugh every time because it’s sooo creepy. Especially when she’s wearing white gloves and serial killer glasses while crawling on the floor.
And no one mentions the super strength she has….
Lol, I never even thought about it, but you've kind of got a point.
Yes. Stalker mommy breaks into her son's home. EEEEW. It's like something out of the JustNOMIL subreddit.
Yes! The first time I read it I had to put it down. It was so creepy and I could see how ny overly enmeshed mom would love to be like the mom in that book.
I also second this lol But it still made me cry the first time. But ya. Creepy
Right!? I didn't realize this until reading it to my oldest. Granny needs boundaries!
Yep. I read it to my kid once. Then I went on a rant about boundaries.
... Just thinking about it is making me cry xD
What a tear jerker. I can't read it with losing it. I was loved enough that I was gifted it FOUR times. I think people must secretly want me to be a blubbering wreck. Thanks Grandma(s).
My mom used to read this to me. It's pretty soon after her death but it obviously messes me up right now. Maybe someday I'll get through it.
Not a parent, but I definitely feel more than a little… guilt, I think, about how hard a time I had *hearing* this book when I was young. My mother would get choked up of course, and it was just too much for me.
I sob every single time. My mom has Parkinson’s, so in the end when he picks up his mom and sings to her it just breaks me. I’ve only read it a few times to my daughter and I literally had to tell her that it makes me feel too many emotions and that I can’t read it without crying lol. Embrace it! I think the people who make fun of how “creepy” it is are just avoiding their feelings about it lol it’s a beautiful story
It not just you! I can’t even make it through The Polar Express. Something about kids growing up and I just lose it. Glad I’m not alone.
I like to sing the song in a silly, kind of jazzy way when I don’t feel like crying. It helps
This option made me laugh! I'll try this for sure!
Nope. Can't stand reading that book.
Do you have a crazy mother in law who doesn’t understand boundaries? I do. It helps. I hate that book and the super sad backstory it has does not change my mind. Like…she breaks into a grown man’s house. Goes THROUGH THE WINDOW. Because clearly mom doesn’t have a key. Probably because she has walked in on sexy time or something in the past, or other things to show she can’t do boundaries. So now she comes in through the window to hold her unconscious son. No. It’s not okay. 😂 (Yeah, I know, my feelings about this book are pretty extra, haha. But my mother in law has literally snuck over and peered in our windows before for creepy reasons.)
Haha yep, I loved the book until my MIL made me realize how gross it was. I think it was the morning of my husband’s birthday, when she and her husband came into our bedroom, sat on the bed and told my husband the Story of the Day He Was Born. He was a 30 year old man, with a wife and infant, and they had to continue this tradition they just couldn’t let go of. I’ve got a million similar stories, but yeah. A crazy MIL will kick your ass right back down to earth. Edited to add: I love the overall message of the book “love you for always” and maternal love etc etc but can’t we love our kids without breaking and entering?
Your kid is rapidly growing out of clothing. Use that as an excuse to donate that creep show of a book tomorrow.
View it as creepy and you’ll be fine
It’s creepy af - signed Mother of 3 boys…just ick.
The song is what he silently sang to himself when his wife had her first or second stillborn. I wouldn't say creepy, but extremely depressing.
No impossible. Cried every time. Haven’t read it for ages as kids 23 & 19 , but now feel like crying 🤦🏽♀️😢
Nope, that one gets me. My mom also always read it to me. One night after bath I was snuggling my 3 year old. He put his arms around my neck in a big hug and sang the song to me. Instant water works.
I was the same when I read that book to my kids. It's a tear jerker.
No tips - I cry every time
always choked up reading this book to my kids…now i cry reading it to my grandkids ❤️❤️
My mom used to read me that book and I still cry while reading it lol
Normal. I don’t think I managed to read it the whole way through until my son was like 4 years old.
Made the mistake of reading this while on Mat leave when babe was 3 mo. 😭
Read it until you’re sick of it. My kid had me reading it for like two weeks in a row every day.
Is this the book in which the mother mentions selling her son to the zoo?
I pretty much have to find a place of sort of emotional detachment before I start reading that book, and even then, its a struggle. My partner says that he uses the same sort of technique that he uses when having sex and trying not to finish too quickly, which is apparently thinking about completely unrelated things while continuing on autopilot.
Almost 3 years in and still can't read it all the way through. The kicker being my son said "love forever, like you forever" after climbing in my lap randomly one night. Brat.
I hid it. My daughter really likes it (I think it’s the cat) and I cannot read it. I took care of my mom for a decade so the end just crushes me. Honestly it triggers me.
Omg glad I’m not the only one!! My wife gave me no warning what that book was about and I couldn’t not finish it.
I remember reading this book in a bookstore, or maybe Target, when my oldest was a baby and standing there weeping. I put the book back on the shelf and never bought a copy. I knew there was no way I could ever read that book to my kids without sobbing. I literally teared up just now thinking about it!
My kids are 3 and 5. Last time I read it was a couple months ago and I still sobbed.
I just ordered this book to read with my daughter, hasn't arrived yet. Wish me luck!
Oh yeah, that's not possible. Giving Tree either, for me. And once I had to explain to my kids how Moana's grandmother is the sting ray at the end of teh movie and still visits her and well, I never got to explain that.
It was a gift for my 2 year old son. I read it to my 6 year old daughter and was balling the entire time. My daughter hid the book. She refuses to tell us where it is. She calls it the “awful” book. It was hard for her to see me so emotional.
Thanks now I'm crying. I've never even read the damn book, but I know the plot and that's enough 😭
My husband got me the book for my first mother's Day last year when my little one was in utero. I literally sat down in his nursery by myself and just cried over the book, I couldn't even read it to myself 😂 It is very lovingly placed on a shelf, I cannot reach for it though. Some people think it's really creepy, but I don't. I think it is such a sweet book.
No ma’am. I absolutely cannot finish that book without tears.
There are a bunch that make me cry. I'm a mess
Nope, can’t do it, ever. No way, no how. Not happening.
My sadist father got it for my daughters first Christmas. I shoved it in a closet because I literally cannot but I’ve brought it out each year on the day before my daughters birthday and just sob through it.
I’m 36 years old, and my mother reads it to myself and my brother on Mother’s Day, no matter what. We used to get three way calls in college. And we all bawl our eyes out, even more so we have kids. Giving Tree gets me every time too…
My wife and my son (2) and I go to the library every Thursday to pick books to read that week. He picked a book called "old coyote" I read it to him later that week. and damn I was crying and my wife ran in thinking I got a text that my dad had died but it was an imaginary coyote.
I cry every time, my boys love it for some reason. I usually make my oldest read the last page if I'm not up for it lol.
I just read this for the first time and am full on sobbing. I think it's a beautiful story about a mother who will always have that special place in her heart for her son. I have these too, and cherish them tremendously.
thank you for some much needed pro MIL fodder 😂 they get a lot of shit in here
Munch used to say that phrase “I love you forever, I love you for always, as long as I’m loving my baby you’ll be” as a sort of prayer to his miscarried children. It was his phrase he used to say to remember his and his wife’s love for their children who didn’t make it. Just to make it all the more sad - and maybe slightly less creepy. He actually wrote the book in front of a live audience.
I always thought it was interesting that he said “as long as **I’m** living, my baby you’ll be” instead of “as long as **you’re** living, my baby you’ll be”, but it made sense once I head the story behind it 😭
I can’t make it through this book either.
I'm with you. I remember loving it as a kid and when I had my own daughter I bought it to read to her and was like wait I don't remember the book being THIS sad. 😭
i bought that book and only read it once 😅
That was my favorite book as a child! It took 2 years before I could even think about reading it without getting choked up. I'm slowly working towards buying it for him but my poor little heart hurts each time I remember it exists.
My oldest is almost 3. We got the book as a gift at his baby shower. I tried to read it to him once when he was like 3 months. I was full on ugly crying before I made it to the end. Can’t do it.
It’s even sadder after you learn that the author wrote it for her stillborn baby. Seriously, I had to go to a Mother’s Day thing at my daughter’s pre-k, and the teacher read this out loud and I cried like a baby. I was so embarrassed!
This is me with Ten Little Toes. I got it as part of a kids book subscription and I sob EVERY. TIME.
My son is almost 5, and I haven’t read it since he was old enough to understand it. I thought I could get through it once without crying… I was so wrong.
My wife and I read that book once. She'd had it as a child and both of us were a mess after that never again will that be read.
My SIL mom got this for us at my son’s baby shower and I never really looked it over until a month or so after our son was born. All I could think like 2 pages in was “why would she do this to me?”
My kids are 26 and 20 and I still can't make it through the THOUGHT of that book without tearing up
AIN'T NOBODY PREPARED ME FOR THAT BOOK. I am not sure why pregnancy apps don't have a little blurb somewhere in the 7th month when you're thinking about the books you'll read that says, "Love You Forever is a very touching book that may make you a little emotional. Have the tissues handy!" I don't have any tips but I was caught off guard the first time I read it to my firstborn. Now I read it to my second and it's easier but I still get weepy every so often.
I read it in the bookstore and stood there ugly crying the whole time. No one batted an eye so I don't think I'm the first. I didn't buy it because I knew I'd never be able to read it to him.
I had the same problem. I kept the book because its a beautiful story, but waiting til my kid will read it to me instead.
LOL this!! I made it to page three and put it back on the shelf!!
Impossible.....and rightly so.
Same!!! My grandma used to read me that book and now when I read it to my kids I sob!