Love U Forever

When Michael was nine I bought him a book called, "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. The reason why the book comes to mind of late is because a co-worker mentioned it. We were talking about kid's story books and how really violent and/or deranged some classic children stories and lullabys were, for instance Rock A By Baby. Poor little baby sits in a tree top, in a cradle and falls. May be an example of either teen parenting where they're too stupid to know any better, or child abuse straight up. We actually sang this lullaby to our children to put them to sleep at night. Like watching Nightmare On Elmstreet I-IV and then expecting to get a good nights sleep. My co-worker then asked me if I'd ever read the book called, "Love You forever". So I told her, "Yes of course. I bought it for my son when he was nine. I loved that story. It's about unconditional love." She looked back at me like she had a secret or something. "Um," she says. "Didn't you find it to be just a little bit creepy the way the mom keeps stocking her son?" Huh.

Here's an excerpt of the back cover, "A young woman holds her newborn son and looks at him lovingly. Softly she sings to him:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.

She does this throughout his terrible twos when at times you're more inclined to drop the kid off in the dark of night on the steps of an orphanage then lull him to sleep with a lullaby, through the teen years when typical focus must be given to not slapping him or her silly, and adulthood when sanity starts to level out to the point a parent can actually communicate with their adult child. Through the good, the bad and the ugly moms sings the same lullaby.

Okay perhaps the uncomfortable moment comes in when the kid is grown and living on his own and mom is sitting outside her grown son's house like a cat burglar. She patiently waits for the lights to go out, then sneaks into his bedroom window, crawls across the floor, peaks over the side of the bed (a tad creepy!) and,

"If that great big man was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth." Dang. Again, with the lullaby.

But seriously, when I first read this book I cried. The author's intent was pure, not sadistic or perverted, and I got that right off and wanted to share it with my child, which is my point for bringing this up in the first place. Love is unconditional, it just is. In my opinion, if we can't bring it like that, we're better off not loving at all. Well, I've gotta go. I want to get over to dad's house and clean up his bedroom while he's having his chemo today. I had another point to make, but can't quite recall what it was so I'll get back to it later.