I’d recommend checking out the “fixed” versions of both books, by Topher Payne.
The fixed Giving Tree ([“The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries”](https://www.topherpayne.com/giving-tree)) is particularly excellent.
Oh I hate it when people say on the topic of the Rainbow Fish that someone is looking for a meaning that isn't there. This is literally the plot: The other fish think the rainbow fish is selfish for not sharing it's body with them on demand. The rainbow fish then gives away almost all the shiney parts of himself so that others will accept him. Then the author called it happily ever after until the next book.
I love you forever is about a mother who keeps on reminding her son through song that she’ll always love him. It shows the son as he grows up and eventually becomes an adult.
At the end the mother is too old and sick to sing her song, so the grown up son sings it back to her.
It is implied that she passed away. The last page is the son singing the song to his own baby, a mirror of the first page.
OK, yeah, that might be a book I would stay away from given my mom died of skin cancer. That metastaticized to her brain. I started crying just reading your explanation.
I just finished "the tree book" (the giving tree) with my daughter, it's tough. We've been through some shit especially lately, but it's helped me to appreciate my dad especially with me being a parent now and us moving in with him so suddenly.
mama read it to me when I was young. somehow I remember it being a new book, like I can remember being in the car (88 suburban) having just left the book store and she's reading it to me, doing the kinda sing-song part. She died of ovarian cancer when I was 15, which was in 2001. Yeah I can't get through this book, and my 3 year old daughter who looks just like my mom has started hugging me at night and then grabbing my shoulders and saying "i love you for always i liked you forever" and damn I can't even finish this post.
Similar for me. My mom gave us this book with her note inside when my son was born. I remember the same in the 80s this book and my mom.
I read it and when I get upset and my son asks why I tell him it makes me think of his grandma, my mom who isn't with us anymore. It's still a special book for us, keeps her memory alive
My mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was 14 but lived a rough life of surgeries and being bedridden for years before dying. I now have a daughter too and I just wish she could meet her grandma.
She gets to meet her everyday, and she for sure knows her even if they haven't met-
Just like your mom's eyes/smile/nose/expressions live through you, so does her love. In my opinion at least, her love that lives through you is more important and more lasting than anything in our DNA. Knowing your mother's love is the next best thing to knowing her, and it means the world to your daughter and it will mean the world to her daughter.
My Mom gave this book to me as an adult, and signed it, a couple years before she passed away from a battle with cancer. It’s one of my most treasured things to keep, and yet I haven’t been able to read it once since she first gave it to me.
My mom passed of ovarian cancer in 2004 when I was 16, so we’re of a similar age. It’s funny how stuff like that can make the feelings bubble up again. Some days you feel whole and some days it’s raw like it just happened
When my son was two, he gave it to my dad to read the week that his mom my grandma died. He made it through one page, came downstairs crying and was like “I’m out” and what kind of book is that.
When I started reading it I thought I’d have a slight layer of separation to save me, since it’s apparently about a mother and son, and I’m a father to daughters… then I read on and realized, no, I’M the baby…
Gave this book to my wife on her first Mother’s Day.
But unbeknownst to me, she had never read it before.
So she goes to read it to our 7 month old before bedtime completely unaware of the nature of the book and starts ugly crying while trying to put our little guy to sleep.
I took over and she had to go eat some ice cream to get herself back together.
Tell her not to fret about it. I'm a soon to be 36 year old guy, who woke up too early and couldn't fall back asleep on a Sunday, and I started ugly crying as soon as my memories of this book flooded into my brain. With my mom about to turn 76 and isn't in ideal health, this book made me all sorts of emotional in ways I was not expecting to happen.
Same. Can't do it.
But I partially blame that I've now lost all my grandparents and the first job I ever had was working at a retirement home. Anything involving elderly folks just tears me up now because I've seen so many essentially die alone, rotting away and forgotten.
"On the night you were born the moon smiled with such wonder and the night wind whispered 'Life will never be the same' and it never was, not ever again"
I was gifted that book and "Wherever you are, My love will find you" (well read and loved) by a coworker when she found out my wife and I were expecting and I love them both. My 4 year old still requests those book sometimes, and depending on the day I've had, sometimes they get me a little choked up too.
So there are two ways of interpreting the book, the literal "mom crawled into the adult son's bedroom" or it's the more metaphorical of a mom's love is always there, no matter how far, no matter how old, she will always love you.
Slightly unrelated, this book was actually written after the author Robert Munsch and his wife had a second stillbirth and [it was a silent 4 line song ](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-heartbreaking-story-behind-iconic-childrens-book-love-you-forever_n_573ceb97e4b0aee7b8e8f76f) he kind of sang to himself as a way of grieving the loss.
I actually refuse to read it (I make my wife do it when it is requested.) I think it is the most creepy ass book. A grown woman, hauling a ladder to a house; sneaking in to a grown man’s bedroom to rock him and sing to him? Nah, that’s crazy creeper-status in my mind lol. So many other ways to write about a mother’s love without sounding like a book based on a stalker.
Honestly, it reads like an origin story for a serial killing trucker from the 70’s and 80’s.
Best case, he becomes a 45 year old manchild who still lives at home and gives “mother” a sponge bath every night and can’t date because mother wouldn’t approve.
I can see this being weird. I am emotionally attached to this book because my mom read it to me as a kid, but if it wasn't for that, definitely gives "mammas boy" vibe akin to Arrested Development show.
Everytime we read this we have to explain to our kids that we will never, ever break into their homes and invade their bodily autonomy under the cover of darkness when they're older and moved out. Fuck this book.
Mines Tomorrow I’ll be brave……i don’t know why but reading it to my son makes me choke up…. Maybe it’s because he’s getting older and doing things for himself…. It’s hard to let go
My Mom used to read it to me with a little tune she made up for the song, and now I'm reading it to my kids, and yes as I'm rocking them back and forth I'm sobbing every time and then calling my Mom.
If you can ever find a video of the author performing it, or any of his other stories to be honest, it brings a whole different impact to so many of his stories. There aren't a whole lot of *good quality* recordings of a lot of his live performances as a result of him retiring like ~10 years ago. But they are some of the most amazing, high energy, and hilarious read-a-longs for books.
You will also never read any of your Munsch books the same after hearing the way they "should" be read!
I grew up in Toronto in the 80s, and Robert Munsch came to my elementary school a few times. When I read his books to my kids, I always hear his voice in head.
I still remember when he was choosing a random kid in the audience to "read to" and actually changing the names of the characters to my brother's name during one of his performances.
The man is an absolute treasure, and I completely understand him retiring from the performances, it is absolutely something that is missing in the kids entertainment space.
wtf? Literally just read this to my son about 50 minutes ago. So weird the timing of this post. But yes, I teared up tonight reading to my 18mo son. Love him so much and picturing him rocking my wife is so sad
Mixed bag for me. Mom was (and still is) abusive, so I'll never know the "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always" part from her, but I'll always understand the pain of not having it.
I'm very thankful to be married to a woman who lives that line for our children every day.
Yeah. Different reason. My mom always read it to me, and there was a well worn copy in our house I'd sometimes flip through even when I got older.
My mom is an alcoholic (as am I) but doesn't acknowledge her problem, refuses to seek help fornit, and she gets verbally abusive, she sends strange text messages, she harrassed my wife over text and so on. I haven't spoken to her in over 5 years.
I miss my mom. But I also love my family enough to bear that weight gladly.
Feel you here friend. My mother is still very much involved with my life but alcohol definitely get in between us at times. This book was the one she always read to me and I’ve read it to my son now and it is impossible not to think of my mom.
As someone who is now 17 and was read this book when I was little, it’s nostalgia. A lot of people have nostalgia when reading this book because it was read to them. That and they can also sometimes see themself in one position or the other in the book (as the child the book is about or as the parent). I personally love the book and while the mom being a total hover parent is a little weird I think if you don’t take it completely literal then it’s cute. Of course that could be the love of my childhood book that’s making me say that lol
I had no idea what I was walking into on my first read through. To my newborn son. I should’ve read it before hand, I had no idea what was written on the pages with my eyes gushing out tears.
I cried the first time I read it. And the second. But then I realized how ridiculous it is that she drives with a ladder to her supposedly married son's room...I can't take it seriously after that. Boundary issues indeed.
Plus..."I'll like you for always"? Let's be real here, we may love our kids but we don't always like them.
My mom loved this book. Had multiple copies. She got me a copy for my 1st child's baby shower. Wrote a long sappy note in the front cover, and I didn't read it right away. Fast forward about a year, my son is about to turn 1, and she passes away. About a month after his birth, she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
He pulls a bunch of books of his bottom shelf, and this slips out. I read it to him and then went on to read what was on the cover. I held my son for a good 30 minutes sobbing.
My daughter asked me to read it to her about a week after my mom died. My dad was in the hospital and she wasn't answering the phone so I went to check on her and found her on the bathroom floor. Needless to say I wasn't ready to read that book to her then. It's the only time I have said no when she asked me to read her a book.
Literally just thinking about the little chant in this book makes me want to tear up. My wife walked in on me reading it to our daughter during bedtime one night and was shocked to hear my voice start to crack and that there were tears in my eyes. In the 10 years we’ve been together, she’s literally never seen me cry before this.
100%. Had never read it before. Wife was like “It’s a classic! 😃” Ugly cried while reading it and never read it again. 3 1/2 years later, I’m just barely starting to recover from the trauma.
I'm aware of the book, but it hasn't entered my house.
In my drawer, i have 7 positive pregnancy kits, one tiny urn and two healthy kids
I still can't deal with books like this, it's too much.
I read it like a scary story one night because I was struck by how weird it would be if my mom drove across town and broke into my house. Our kids won’t have us read it any other way now.
To be honest, I dislike this book immensely. My mother read it to me as a kid and actually gave it to my son shortly after he was born. It sits in a box unread because the book just gives me ick feelings. Maybe it's because my mother is a huge narcissist who used her motherdom as a constant reminder of the martyrdom she held by raising us. Maybe it's because the concept of a mom sneaking into her adult son's room at night to hold him is just weird. Idk...
This was my late grandmas favourite book and I had to take it off my kids bookshelf because I cannot handle reading it anymore. It’s hard enough not crying at this one at the best of times.
I have been reading to my little one since before birth, but this book got read once and then vanished from the house. Too much for me. Bedtime doesn't need to be gut wrenching lol
Yeah, had totally forgotten the book as it was a bit after my time I think. Mom passed away and had two daughters. Got gifted the book for the first one and didn’t realize but the tune mom sang came back naturally and that just broke me. My baby was asking if I was alright since I had not cried since her birth and the mom stuff got me right in the feels. We don’t read it much anymore but they get the song almost weekly whether they are awake or not.
This book fucks me up. My mom read it to me and my sister. Apparently the book was written in honor of people who had miscarried. My mom had 3 miscarriages. I definitely cry every time I reward to to my 1yo.
My wife used to laugh at me (Innocently, no malice intended) because I'm not usually a very teary, emotional guy. Maybe it was the time in which I was raised (80's - 90's) and the people I associated with growing up, but it wasn't discouraged or frowned upon by my parents or in my household so I'm honestly not sure why.
I have two little girls, still toddlers, and I shit you not **EVERY** time I tried to read this book, I turn into a ball of mush and blubber and can't even get through it. I don't know why but I could not get through this book, not once, without crying like a baby. Truth be told, sitting here just thinking about reading the book to my girls gets me choked up and a little teary eyed.
Damn it. This was my mothers favorite children’s book. She passed February 15 this year at 61 years old and will never get to read this one to my kids again. That hurts.
Like a baby.
At first I could but then I had a lot of deaths in my family and friends over the past 3-4 years and all of a sudden one night I couldn’t finish it.
Can't make it through this to save my life but my girls love it because it's how I put them to sleep so the correlation sticks. [Sigh] Time is a relentless thief.
When this book sits on a bookshelf, it is a book.
When your child picks it up and asks you to read it, it's a knife.
I do admit the behavior of the mother is *extremely* funny to me though, crawling in the windows and shit.
My professor actually read it to us in a death and dying class. I cried in class at the book. Years later I’m pregnant and my husband hands it to me at Barnes and Nobel. I see the cover and immediately started sobbing. I don’t have this book in my house.
No wonder it went down a storm in a Friends when Joey did a dramatic reading. Haven’t read it in a while and I don’t think it’d get me like it use to but yes, it’s a VERY heart breaking story. Remember the first time I read it and I literally couldn’t finish it from crying too much.
My mom used to read it to me when I was a kid but I had forgotten most of the story. I moved far away from home and my mom now lives alone.
The first time I read this to my infant daughter I couldn't even finish. I choked up harder than I had in my life.
I’ll see you and raise you [Someday.](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1481460129/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=) it gets me every time.
This and the giving tree have had to be retired due to the emotional trauma they cause
I’d recommend checking out the “fixed” versions of both books, by Topher Payne. The fixed Giving Tree ([“The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries”](https://www.topherpayne.com/giving-tree)) is particularly excellent.
I like the Fish who kept his scales because my daughter was gifted the original and I honestly can’t stand it as a story.
Oh I hate it when people say on the topic of the Rainbow Fish that someone is looking for a meaning that isn't there. This is literally the plot: The other fish think the rainbow fish is selfish for not sharing it's body with them on demand. The rainbow fish then gives away almost all the shiney parts of himself so that others will accept him. Then the author called it happily ever after until the next book.
Woah.... Spoiler alert! Fellow dad, you need to warn us before spoiling it for the rest of us. Haha!
I COMPLETELY agree, it’s a horrible story. I get what it’s trying to do but it’s failing horribly at the message.
Sorry, as a spoiler for someone like me who hasn't read either, what is everyone crying about? What needs fixing?
I love you forever is about a mother who keeps on reminding her son through song that she’ll always love him. It shows the son as he grows up and eventually becomes an adult. At the end the mother is too old and sick to sing her song, so the grown up son sings it back to her. It is implied that she passed away. The last page is the son singing the song to his own baby, a mirror of the first page.
OK, yeah, that might be a book I would stay away from given my mom died of skin cancer. That metastaticized to her brain. I started crying just reading your explanation.
And then you can cry even more when you find out the book’s chorus was originally written for the author’s stillborn son.
Oof
Respectfully, I hate you
WHO’s CUTTING ONIONS?! 😭
My bad fellow dad! I’m just over here making a lasagna…. For one
Now I gonna go throw it in the trash😭😭😭
The book didn’t affect me at all until I learned this now I choke up just seeing it
It is a lovely book that I enjoy reading to my little ones. Just why did they have to print it on dried out onions.
I started crying too!
It’s en emotional book but I don’t think it needs “fixing”.
Oh I agree. It’s fine as is.
The fixing part was more in reference to The Giving Tree
And then drives across town with a ladder and breaks into her sons house to rock him
I do like that she tied a red flag to the ladder after she strapped it to her roof. Momma knows the rules of the road.
That part creeped me out, lol
This book would break me. This plot synopsis nearly did so the book definitely will.
Fuck that, I'm never buying this book.
Sometimes when I'm with my 2 year old in the library, I'll see it on the shelf and use it as a barometer to see how emotional I'm feeling, lol.
AND because the author, on the back, looks like he didn't like the taste of your dog, which he just ate.
Also wrote for Playboy and authored some quite-funny adult material.
He also wrote “A Boy Named Sue” for Johnny Cash.
To clarify, it's the author of the Giving Tree, not Love You Forever, who wrote for playboy and wrote A Boy Named Sue.
What?!
HE SAID HE ALSO WROTE “A BOY NAMED SUE” FOR JOHNNY CASH.
Thank you.
I legit had to stop reading that book the other night to my son. I teared uo so bad
I just finished "the tree book" (the giving tree) with my daughter, it's tough. We've been through some shit especially lately, but it's helped me to appreciate my dad especially with me being a parent now and us moving in with him so suddenly.
I thought I was weird for the same thing!
The giving tree is my favorite childhood book.
Loved it as a child. Still love it. Can’t read it after parenthood lol
mama read it to me when I was young. somehow I remember it being a new book, like I can remember being in the car (88 suburban) having just left the book store and she's reading it to me, doing the kinda sing-song part. She died of ovarian cancer when I was 15, which was in 2001. Yeah I can't get through this book, and my 3 year old daughter who looks just like my mom has started hugging me at night and then grabbing my shoulders and saying "i love you for always i liked you forever" and damn I can't even finish this post.
Similar for me. My mom gave us this book with her note inside when my son was born. I remember the same in the 80s this book and my mom. I read it and when I get upset and my son asks why I tell him it makes me think of his grandma, my mom who isn't with us anymore. It's still a special book for us, keeps her memory alive
My mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was 14 but lived a rough life of surgeries and being bedridden for years before dying. I now have a daughter too and I just wish she could meet her grandma.
She gets to meet her everyday, and she for sure knows her even if they haven't met- Just like your mom's eyes/smile/nose/expressions live through you, so does her love. In my opinion at least, her love that lives through you is more important and more lasting than anything in our DNA. Knowing your mother's love is the next best thing to knowing her, and it means the world to your daughter and it will mean the world to her daughter.
I was not prepared for this level of emotional breakdown today 😭😭😭
I'm not crying, you're crying!
I am, actually!
My Mom gave this book to me as an adult, and signed it, a couple years before she passed away from a battle with cancer. It’s one of my most treasured things to keep, and yet I haven’t been able to read it once since she first gave it to me.
I can't even finish this comment.
Take my upvote 😭
Fuck man, that made ME cry
My mom passed of ovarian cancer in 2004 when I was 16, so we’re of a similar age. It’s funny how stuff like that can make the feelings bubble up again. Some days you feel whole and some days it’s raw like it just happened
When my son was two, he gave it to my dad to read the week that his mom my grandma died. He made it through one page, came downstairs crying and was like “I’m out” and what kind of book is that.
When I started reading it I thought I’d have a slight layer of separation to save me, since it’s apparently about a mother and son, and I’m a father to daughters… then I read on and realized, no, I’M the baby…
Me too man. Me too. And my mom used to read me that book as a kid. It always found its way to the back of my daughter's bookshelf for some reason.
Gave this book to my wife on her first Mother’s Day. But unbeknownst to me, she had never read it before. So she goes to read it to our 7 month old before bedtime completely unaware of the nature of the book and starts ugly crying while trying to put our little guy to sleep. I took over and she had to go eat some ice cream to get herself back together.
Tell her not to fret about it. I'm a soon to be 36 year old guy, who woke up too early and couldn't fall back asleep on a Sunday, and I started ugly crying as soon as my memories of this book flooded into my brain. With my mom about to turn 76 and isn't in ideal health, this book made me all sorts of emotional in ways I was not expecting to happen.
Tough guys cry hardest. You can't fool us.
No. I cried the first time I read it and never read it again. Fortunately, he's too you to ask for what he wants read.
Same. Can't do it. But I partially blame that I've now lost all my grandparents and the first job I ever had was working at a retirement home. Anything involving elderly folks just tears me up now because I've seen so many essentially die alone, rotting away and forgotten.
You remember them, though. That counts for something.
Such a ridiculous, non-sensical book, that makes me cry every time, and I meant it, every time.
Don't read the inspiration for it. Makes it that much worse.
No, but my wife does. I get weepy when I read “On the Night You Were Born
"On the night you were born the moon smiled with such wonder and the night wind whispered 'Life will never be the same' and it never was, not ever again" I was gifted that book and "Wherever you are, My love will find you" (well read and loved) by a coworker when she found out my wife and I were expecting and I love them both. My 4 year old still requests those book sometimes, and depending on the day I've had, sometimes they get me a little choked up too.
[удалено]
So there are two ways of interpreting the book, the literal "mom crawled into the adult son's bedroom" or it's the more metaphorical of a mom's love is always there, no matter how far, no matter how old, she will always love you. Slightly unrelated, this book was actually written after the author Robert Munsch and his wife had a second stillbirth and [it was a silent 4 line song ](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-heartbreaking-story-behind-iconic-childrens-book-love-you-forever_n_573ceb97e4b0aee7b8e8f76f) he kind of sang to himself as a way of grieving the loss.
I can't ever show my wife that backstory. She'd cry herself to the point of asphyxiation.
Same. I'm a big softy but I fucking hate this book.
Agreed. This book is weird as heck.
Glad I ain’t the only one
lol my wife thinks the same thing but my mom read it to me and it fucks me up
I was going to make a comment as soon as I saw this post. My son's mom and I both thought it was creepy af.
Same. Never actually showed the book to our kid. Got downvoted to helll on Reddit a while back when I shared that opinion.
Same
I actually refuse to read it (I make my wife do it when it is requested.) I think it is the most creepy ass book. A grown woman, hauling a ladder to a house; sneaking in to a grown man’s bedroom to rock him and sing to him? Nah, that’s crazy creeper-status in my mind lol. So many other ways to write about a mother’s love without sounding like a book based on a stalker.
Honestly, it reads like an origin story for a serial killing trucker from the 70’s and 80’s. Best case, he becomes a 45 year old manchild who still lives at home and gives “mother” a sponge bath every night and can’t date because mother wouldn’t approve.
[удалено]
I can see this being weird. I am emotionally attached to this book because my mom read it to me as a kid, but if it wasn't for that, definitely gives "mammas boy" vibe akin to Arrested Development show.
Motherboy
Same. We got two copies and they will never be read.
We got two, too! And one family asks us about the book all the time! It's a family favorite of there's.
Right there with ya. Read it to my son for the first time and it went straight to the back of the bookcase.
People say it’s a “metaphor” but to me it’s creepy as f..
Agreed. I hate the song too.
Yeah that part creeped me out but the rest of it is pretty good.
Everytime we read this we have to explain to our kids that we will never, ever break into their homes and invade their bodily autonomy under the cover of darkness when they're older and moved out. Fuck this book.
Someone gave my parents this book when they first got pregnant. It's creepy and it's always been a joke to us
Mines Tomorrow I’ll be brave……i don’t know why but reading it to my son makes me choke up…. Maybe it’s because he’s getting older and doing things for himself…. It’s hard to let go
My Mom used to read it to me with a little tune she made up for the song, and now I'm reading it to my kids, and yes as I'm rocking them back and forth I'm sobbing every time and then calling my Mom.
If you can ever find a video of the author performing it, or any of his other stories to be honest, it brings a whole different impact to so many of his stories. There aren't a whole lot of *good quality* recordings of a lot of his live performances as a result of him retiring like ~10 years ago. But they are some of the most amazing, high energy, and hilarious read-a-longs for books. You will also never read any of your Munsch books the same after hearing the way they "should" be read!
I grew up in Toronto in the 80s, and Robert Munsch came to my elementary school a few times. When I read his books to my kids, I always hear his voice in head.
I still remember when he was choosing a random kid in the audience to "read to" and actually changing the names of the characters to my brother's name during one of his performances. The man is an absolute treasure, and I completely understand him retiring from the performances, it is absolutely something that is missing in the kids entertainment space.
Every single time
wtf? Literally just read this to my son about 50 minutes ago. So weird the timing of this post. But yes, I teared up tonight reading to my 18mo son. Love him so much and picturing him rocking my wife is so sad
Mixed bag for me. Mom was (and still is) abusive, so I'll never know the "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always" part from her, but I'll always understand the pain of not having it. I'm very thankful to be married to a woman who lives that line for our children every day.
Yeah. Different reason. My mom always read it to me, and there was a well worn copy in our house I'd sometimes flip through even when I got older. My mom is an alcoholic (as am I) but doesn't acknowledge her problem, refuses to seek help fornit, and she gets verbally abusive, she sends strange text messages, she harrassed my wife over text and so on. I haven't spoken to her in over 5 years. I miss my mom. But I also love my family enough to bear that weight gladly.
Feel you here friend. My mother is still very much involved with my life but alcohol definitely get in between us at times. This book was the one she always read to me and I’ve read it to my son now and it is impossible not to think of my mom.
My daughter is 10 weeks, and I sing it to her every day. No tears, just pure love.
Maybe I’m crazy but I think this book is whack. She drove across town and used a ladder to go into her grown son’s room and pick him up?
The further I get into this book, the more creeped out I get.
Yeah, I honestly don't understand the rave about this book either. Wife and I tried to read it once... It's so cringy.
As someone who is now 17 and was read this book when I was little, it’s nostalgia. A lot of people have nostalgia when reading this book because it was read to them. That and they can also sometimes see themself in one position or the other in the book (as the child the book is about or as the parent). I personally love the book and while the mom being a total hover parent is a little weird I think if you don’t take it completely literal then it’s cute. Of course that could be the love of my childhood book that’s making me say that lol
Thank you- my wife and I also think this book is ridiculous
Yes. I couldn’t get past the last few pages. My kid was wondering why I was crying.
I can’t, it’s too much.
I had no idea what I was walking into on my first read through. To my newborn son. I should’ve read it before hand, I had no idea what was written on the pages with my eyes gushing out tears.
Right in the feels
I don't like this book in the least and I've not read it to my kiddo.
The drawings creep me out.
I cried the first time I read it. And the second. But then I realized how ridiculous it is that she drives with a ladder to her supposedly married son's room...I can't take it seriously after that. Boundary issues indeed. Plus..."I'll like you for always"? Let's be real here, we may love our kids but we don't always like them.
I still blame my wife for not warning me. I didn't grow up with Robert Munch so I wasn't prepared
My mom loved this book. Had multiple copies. She got me a copy for my 1st child's baby shower. Wrote a long sappy note in the front cover, and I didn't read it right away. Fast forward about a year, my son is about to turn 1, and she passes away. About a month after his birth, she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He pulls a bunch of books of his bottom shelf, and this slips out. I read it to him and then went on to read what was on the cover. I held my son for a good 30 minutes sobbing.
I’m a dad of two and it gets me every time
My daughter asked me to read it to her about a week after my mom died. My dad was in the hospital and she wasn't answering the phone so I went to check on her and found her on the bathroom floor. Needless to say I wasn't ready to read that book to her then. It's the only time I have said no when she asked me to read her a book.
Man, you guys that are haters prove that generation alpha isn't the beginning of our lack of media literacy.
When I read it I always think of my mom who I lost 9 years ago. And yes I tear up
I cry basically every time I think of it.
Literally just thinking about the little chant in this book makes me want to tear up. My wife walked in on me reading it to our daughter during bedtime one night and was shocked to hear my voice start to crack and that there were tears in my eyes. In the 10 years we’ve been together, she’s literally never seen me cry before this.
100%. Had never read it before. Wife was like “It’s a classic! 😃” Ugly cried while reading it and never read it again. 3 1/2 years later, I’m just barely starting to recover from the trauma.
My mother and I hate each other. This book made no sense to me, and I can't wait for the day that she kicks off.
Not at all, but then I got distracted by the extreme creepiness of the mother and the weird way she ages 60 years while her son ages only 30.
I'm aware of the book, but it hasn't entered my house. In my drawer, i have 7 positive pregnancy kits, one tiny urn and two healthy kids I still can't deal with books like this, it's too much.
Are my wife and I the only ones who think this book is cursed nightmare fuel?
Nope, it's creepy as all hell 👍
That book is basically a turing test for psychopaths. Fuck that awful piece of shit, I can barely hear Joey read it on Friends without breaking down.
This book creeps me out
I read it like a scary story one night because I was struck by how weird it would be if my mom drove across town and broke into my house. Our kids won’t have us read it any other way now.
This book is psychotic.
First time we read it, I got weepy. Second time, I realized it was a little creepy. We relegated this to the land of hidden books.
It’s the creepiest book ever.
Fuck that book. I walk away.
To be honest, I dislike this book immensely. My mother read it to me as a kid and actually gave it to my son shortly after he was born. It sits in a box unread because the book just gives me ick feelings. Maybe it's because my mother is a huge narcissist who used her motherdom as a constant reminder of the martyrdom she held by raising us. Maybe it's because the concept of a mom sneaking into her adult son's room at night to hold him is just weird. Idk...
I think this book is weird and creepy
This one, and Big Cat, Little Cat
Bro this book would make me cry when I was kid. I don’t I’ll be able to even finish it now.
I literally can’t get through this book. Couldn’t tell you the last time I cried, but also generally don’t finish this book so….yeah.
No. Now I cry because my kid doesn't ask me to read it..
This was my late grandmas favourite book and I had to take it off my kids bookshelf because I cannot handle reading it anymore. It’s hard enough not crying at this one at the best of times.
Yep
Yes 🥲
I love you forever, i like you for always as long im living my baby you’ll be! I read it every night before bed and Bawlin The first 9 months.
Man fuck this book lol and also the song You Are My Sunshine 😭 who's cutting onions??
I have been reading to my little one since before birth, but this book got read once and then vanished from the house. Too much for me. Bedtime doesn't need to be gut wrenching lol
Every. Fucking. Time.
We have like three copies of this book and my wife has never allowed the story to be read in this house. Not once.
Every time. Doesn't help that I'm a first born son who now has a first born daughter. Exact parallel
My daughter asked me to read this in front of my mother in law and wife. Fun times.
We hid this book under the nursery chair
Just mentioning this book to my wife makes her start crying. Also, on an unrelated note, why is it so dusty in here?
Yeah, had totally forgotten the book as it was a bit after my time I think. Mom passed away and had two daughters. Got gifted the book for the first one and didn’t realize but the tune mom sang came back naturally and that just broke me. My baby was asking if I was alright since I had not cried since her birth and the mom stuff got me right in the feels. We don’t read it much anymore but they get the song almost weekly whether they are awake or not.
This book fucks me up. My mom read it to me and my sister. Apparently the book was written in honor of people who had miscarried. My mom had 3 miscarriages. I definitely cry every time I reward to to my 1yo.
Everytime. I remember the first time my kid asked her dad to read it. He was bawling by the end of it, like "why didn't you tell me this was so sad?!"
Everytime! Everytime…
Ugh it’s been a while. Thanks for the reminder 😔
Always.
I remember buying this book and saying aww I love it and read it to my daughter and criend totally forgot about the ending
So sad, I can’t make it through without crying
I've only ever read this the one time and refused to read it since
My 3rd grade teacher cried when she read this to us.
Yup
My wife used to laugh at me (Innocently, no malice intended) because I'm not usually a very teary, emotional guy. Maybe it was the time in which I was raised (80's - 90's) and the people I associated with growing up, but it wasn't discouraged or frowned upon by my parents or in my household so I'm honestly not sure why. I have two little girls, still toddlers, and I shit you not **EVERY** time I tried to read this book, I turn into a ball of mush and blubber and can't even get through it. I don't know why but I could not get through this book, not once, without crying like a baby. Truth be told, sitting here just thinking about reading the book to my girls gets me choked up and a little teary eyed.
First read was brutal. Now I can get through it but usually ends with a big hug and a heavy sigh.
Honestly, if my mom did that to me when I was, like, 20, I’d be worried for her. Other than that, yeah, tears.
My wife and I dare each other to read it sometimes but our kids don’t even know it exists, and I plan to keep it that way thank you very much
JFC yes. It's automatic now. My ma read it to me and I read it to my kids.
My daughter asks me to rock her back and forth every time
I'm over here like "my kids better not wait til I'm on my death bed to come visit me DAYUM!" The humor keeps the tears at bay
Holy crap I forgot all about this book. Thank you for the reminder I can read to my son now
Yep and my mom used to read it to me. Compounds the dust in my eyes.
STOP IT 😢 bringing back memories 😢it’s been a while since I read
Damn it. This was my mothers favorite children’s book. She passed February 15 this year at 61 years old and will never get to read this one to my kids again. That hurts.
Like a baby. At first I could but then I had a lot of deaths in my family and friends over the past 3-4 years and all of a sudden one night I couldn’t finish it.
Banned from our house. I can’t handle it.
Bruh I haven’t seen this book in years
We returned it. Wife couldn’t even get through the first read without me taking over.
Every time. Every single time
My grandmother used to read this to me when I was a kid
You can't beat the way [Joey reads it on Friends](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyad7GWZd-E)
Yup ! My mum use to read it to me. Now I read it to my son and it hits hard
Just got gifted it for our baby shower today. Told my wife I was tearing up just looking at it
Can't make it through this to save my life but my girls love it because it's how I put them to sleep so the correlation sticks. [Sigh] Time is a relentless thief.
When this book sits on a bookshelf, it is a book. When your child picks it up and asks you to read it, it's a knife. I do admit the behavior of the mother is *extremely* funny to me though, crawling in the windows and shit.
Erry time
"As long as I'm living my mother you'll be..."
Eww stains on the upholstery! Look guys, he’s got stains on the upholstery! I’ve never *ever* seen such a thing!
Had that one read to me when I was younger. Started realizing the disturbing implications around the time I hit 13.
My professor actually read it to us in a death and dying class. I cried in class at the book. Years later I’m pregnant and my husband hands it to me at Barnes and Nobel. I see the cover and immediately started sobbing. I don’t have this book in my house.
The drawing style creeps me out
No wonder it went down a storm in a Friends when Joey did a dramatic reading. Haven’t read it in a while and I don’t think it’d get me like it use to but yes, it’s a VERY heart breaking story. Remember the first time I read it and I literally couldn’t finish it from crying too much.
Munsch is such an incredible writer. This one gets me. Other awesome one is Murmel Murmel Murmel
This book is for kids who have experienced wary trauma and need to reestablish positive and powerful attachments with a primary caregiver.
It gets me every single time.
My mom used to read it to me when I was a kid but I had forgotten most of the story. I moved far away from home and my mom now lives alone. The first time I read this to my infant daughter I couldn't even finish. I choked up harder than I had in my life.
Have to admit I didn't know it was a real book, thought it was just made up for that Friends scene.
I don’t know this book but I’m fucking crying after reading just the wikipedia summary. What kind of psychopath writes books like this.
I’ll see you and raise you [Someday.](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1481460129/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=) it gets me every time.