If I ever meet President Barack Obama in a dark alley, I can tell you the first thing I'd do. I'd be putting out my hand and saying, "Put 'er there, dude! You are my parenting hero!" Because on Black Friday, our nation's first dad just did one of the single most important things a papa can do with his kids. Dads of America, pull out your wallets! You'll want to match the commander in chief on this one.
President Obama took daughters Sasha and Malia shopping for books! And I'm not talking the stuff every kid needs for school and parents grudgingly shell out for. Word has it the Obama clan picked up stuff like Tails by Matthew Van Fleet, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (a personal fave that just celebrated its 50th anniversary!), Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney, and The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (which is currently playing movie theaters simply as Hugo). He also seems to have grabbed a few more grown-up picks for himself and/or the First Lady.
Call it all a ploy to kick-start the holiday spending season, and you'd be half right. It was Small Business Saturday. He's the president. Blah, blah, blah-bitty-blah.
But come on! This was a daddy/daughter moment of the highest order. You don't have to be a hippie dippie lib to get that.
Kids who are encouraged to read by their parents are more likely to do so if their parents play an active role in making it happen. I'm not just saying that. There are a gazillion and one studies out there that will back me up.
But isn't the anecdotal stuff stronger? I remember once standing in a bookstore with my husband, poring through the stacks, only to overhear a woman chatting with the clerk about this book club her girlfriends were starting. She wanted the clerk to make a suggestion for their first read, but she wanted it to be "not too boring" because "I don't like to read."
I should mention her kid -- who appeared to be around 6 or 7 -- was standing at her side the whole time. And sure, I give her credit for trying to actually get into reading, but you'll never guess what happened about 10 minutes later. She asked her son if he'd found anything he wanted in the bookstore, and he said no and began whining about getting to the toy store. A whole store full of adventures just waiting to be embarked upon, and he couldn't find anything?
I'm going to go out on a judgy mom limb and say mama screwed that one up good.
President Obama did the stuff good daddies do. He actually put one foot in front of the other and browsed the actual shelves with his daughters by his side. He showed them it was a priority. And when you've got stuff on your plate like "what should we do about Libya today?" making reading a priority is -- as our buddy VP Biden would say -- a "big f---in deal."
Check them out in action!
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
What books are on your kids' Christmas list this year?
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