Most Sunday mornings I come down to breakfast and find the Sunday paper already dismembered and spread across our kitchen table. My son rifles through it to find the comics, but my daughter tries to get them first. You see, reading “The Comics” is different than just watching cartoons. My kids know this with certainty.
When I was little I remember my parents arguing over who got possession of the San Diego Union-Tribune. My dad wanted to take it to work to read over his lunch break, but my mom wanted to read it at home. Being a little know-it-all (even then), I tried to settle the question by insisting that my dad should win the paper because my mom could get her news coverage from TV. I still remember my mother’s emphatic “No. The TV news and the newspaper are not the same thing.” Her message was very clear to me, even as a 6-year-old: Newspapers are special.
These days, you can check the news headlines (or your favorite parenting column) on the computer and your phone, but it is still not the same thing as having newsprint spread before you. When children see you in front of a screen they think that you are working (whatever THAT is), or else playing something fun like “Angry Birds.” Children do not translate you checking your BlackBerry into “My mother is a cultured and literate person who values reading and her local community.” Your son or daughter watching you and your spouse fight over who gets to take The Daily Herald to work each morning is a different story. Reading the newspaper in front of your children teaches them about your character. It demonstrates that you are curious about the world around you, that you value staying informed, that you care about your community, and that you can always find room in your day to learn new things. Aren’t these traits we want our children to develop too?
In teacher credentialing school I learned about the importance of modeling a love of reading to students. In my real life as a parent I learned that my 3-year-old will rip the latest best-seller out of my hands in two seconds flat. Reading the newspaper in front of my kids still accomplishes the goal of modeling a love of reading to my children but in an easier way. Working my way through the paper in three-minute intervals is OK, and if the front page ends up getting crumpled I don’t owe the library any money.
Recently I was working on a craft project with some local children that involved cutting the letters D-A-D out of a newspaper. Several children confessed to me that their fathers do not read the newspaper. One girl even told me, “My dad doesn’t read the paper, but my dad’s dad does.” Has the generational divide really come to this or was I not getting the true story? Sometimes I wonder what my own kids report about me when I am not present, and if they tell the whole truth. I would be really embarrassed if they ever claimed I was somebody who doesn’t read the newspaper. Hopefully other parents would give me the benefit of the doubt, just like I do for them.
Jennifer Bardsley is an Edmonds mom of two and blogs at http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com.
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