things that are better in retrospect

There are a few parenting moments that I’ve been hoping and dreaming about since before I even had kids.  One of them was reading through the Little House Series series with a daughter.  I loved these books as a kid, and couldn’t wait for my kids to be old enough to read it to them.  Well, that day has finally come.  Mark bought the series recently and we decided the kids were ready.  I didn’t know how the boys would respond, since my children are basically little prejudiced gender-police enforcers and, despite my best efforts, turn their nose up at any show, movie, or book that doesn’t feature a child of their same sex as a prominent character.  Apparently, Pa’s manly background role won the boys over, and we’ve been reading through the first book as a family. Only . . . Wow.  I didn’t remember that there was an entire chapter that went into gory detail on the slaughtering of a pig.  Somehow this occurrence was completely erased from my memory, so as the children were cuddled around Mark in an idyllic family tableau. he began reading through a detailed account of The Butchering.  My kids were MORTIFIED and Mark and I could not stop laughing.  You should have seen their faces when we got to the part (and the picture) were the girls play with the pigs bladder that Pa has blown up into a balloon.  Barf!  To be fair, due to my vegan-curious tendencies, my kids have never seen so much as a raw steak in the way of meat prep . . . so this was a bit of an education for them.  I’ll never forget last year, Jafta saying to me, “Mom, wouldn’t it be crazy if the chicken we eat was the same thing as the animal?  That would be weird.” Um, yeah.  About that.   It’s still so much fun reading it with them . . . even with the lengthy description of deep-frying the pig’s tail.  I don’t think they’re quite ready for a viewing of Food Inc., so the Laura Ingalls Wilder series will have to do for now. BLADDER BALLOON!?!?! Which reminds me . . . on our last road trip, I queued up several children’s books on tape, including The Secret Garden.  Do you remember how that begins?  Because I SURE DIDN’T.  We turned it on and my children listened in horror as a young girl loses every single person she knows to Cholera in the first chapter, at which point Mark and I decided that perhaps listening to music would be a better option.  Oh my word.  My kids STILL remind me about the time where we listened to that story where everyone died. What books, movies, or events do you remember nostalgically, that you’ve later realized were not as romantic as you once remembered?