Motherhood & Steinbeck

In an earlier post I talked about John Steinbeck and how I read him as an early teen and that I thought that I should have my son read him too. I was so right about his reaction, not fun at all. At first he accused my mother of putting the idea into my head and I had to correct that thought by telling him that, no it was due to my blogging.

I gave him two months to read Of Mice and Men a 107 page book. His number one argument was that he had to finish reading a book for school. Okay, but he hadn't been reading any at home, so he had plenty of time still. He let me know that he had to catch up on reading his school book because he had been out sick (true) for almost a week. Deal.

When that book was done he was to start reading on the Steinbeck novel but he wasn't. Well his excuse for that was he needed a free read book for school now and that would be his book. Again, no problem. I checked in with him a couple of days after school to see how the book was going. The first day's argument was about how difficult it was to understand the "backwards" language. I told him that was the key to learning about other cultures, times, and regions. Still not going over well, we discussed it the ten minute ride home. Oh and he had only read five pages of it so far.

He didn't bring the book home for the weekend. I asked him about it on Saturday, how far he had gotten and his thoughts on it. He turned it into an argument about just having to read the book at all.I have tried and still do to treat him as an intelligent human who has the right to discuss and argue his points in this household. Sometimes I just want to play the Mom Card and say, "because I said so". I don't. I give him all of my reasons and let him argue back and forth.

He went so far as to say that I only force him to do things that I like even when he doesn't like them. I said that it was normal for a child not to like anything a parent does and to not want to do them. For me and him it has been playing guitar, computer work, gardening, arts and crafts, Spanish and reading to name a few. Anything Mom is taboo. I should play on the Xbos maybe he'd hate it too then. I persevered and gave examples of times when knowledge of a book would help; references in other literature, in articles, in discussions, in writing papers, in reading other difficult books, and on and on. I tried to show him how broadening his base knowledge of many different things would make him better at a job by using it to be more creative than the "next guy". I guess I'm not a very good example, to most people I don't use my college degree, sure it didn't help me get my job but it helps me do my job. My knowledge of Steinbeck, Cather, Dickens and others doesn't seem like it helps me daily, yet I know that it helps me approach life differently.

Oh well, our argument ended with him angering me because I knew he was just trying to bully me. He still has to read the book. And I know that I have given him something valuable in sticking to my guns..