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Can kids read too much?

Sin said:
I know I shouldn’t be complaining. I was just wondering if I did something wrong and can I do something to help him?

I see that as a society we have become too obsessed with our children. Now we spend so much time driving our kids around, waiting for them to do their sports, driving them to other kids’ homes for “socializing events”, etc.

I grew up in a totally different environment and my parents never had to do things I am doing now. I would just go out in the street and there was always somebody out there to play with. My parents usually didn’t know where I am. I would just come back at dinner time. But now we are so worried about our kids’ security and try to protect them with bubble-wrap.

I know there are worse cases than my but it’s not very comforting - on the contrary. I always ask myself if it will become any better over the time.
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I'm not sure about the bubble wrap, but I do know what you mean.:lol: I use to never let my kids play outside alone. After we had our backyard fence put in, then I could relax a bit. I'm still too protective, but it is getting better.......but not much though. :D
 
I'm in college and don't have kids, but I can tell you that it's not necessarily a horrible thing if your children aren't overly social. I'm not trying to direct you, but as a kid I was never very social, and I'm still not good at meeting people or making friends. I too spent a lot of time reading or doing other things by myself, and I also didn't get along well with many kids my age. The main problem was they started seeming immature to me after a time. Maybe I was being judgmental, but I didn't want to act like they did, so I didn;t spend much time with them.

I can understand why you would be worried that he is substituting fake worlds for the real one, but it doesn't sound to me like he is, at least not an unhealthy level. An extreme example of that would be D&D or World of Warcraft addicts. There's a difference between those who play and those who have lost all touch with reality, and they're pretty easy to spot in person.

Unless your children are feeling lonely, depressed, ostracized, etc., there may not be a problem. It's their emotional state I would be looking at, not how they conform to how parents like to see them acting as an ideal. Some kids, like me, are more shy and prefer time alone, but make closer friends out of their fewer friends as a result.

And perhaps this is overstepping my bounds, but try not to overwhelm them with activities; I know others have talked about this before me. But sometimes kids will keep doing a ton of things to make their parents proud, even if they hate the activity. This does not have an age limit. Me, I hated organized activities, but was outspoken enough to let my parents know.

I know my advice may not be perfect as I am not a parent, but I hope my memories from being an "antisocial" kid help you.
 
I understand what you mean but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing if somebody reads books like Harry Potter.
My son hasn't read any Harry Potter book yet, but I don't mind if he wants to read it. I let him choose his books. We tried to recommend him some titles but he prefers to investigate and picks books on his own. That's probably the best way to build your own taste. You have to try various things to see the difference and find what interest you the most. And that's something that changes and evolves over time. I used to love Bruce Lee movies when I was a kid :).
 
I have to agree with sin on this one. Let them read junk first-comics, war books, whatever. You have to start with their personal interest and the rest will take care of itself. Force the serious "good" stuff on them early and they'll grow to resent it.
 
reading book is agood thing and i think evey child should make this as a habbit of reading books as it increase vocabs and also it helps while speaking as the child learn new thing.
 
In my opinion, kids are meant for breaking the rules and the traditions.If they will be organised on their own, what will be the difference between kids and us?
 
Sin, your son sounds exactly like me when I was a kid/teen. I turned out fine (I think;) ) At least, my hubby seems to think so.
I went to the library once a week and came home with 6 bags of books, even though the teenagers who only came to the library for the computers stared like I was out to lunch. I loved reading.
Kids picked on me a lot, even before I was reading, so maybe it started with him that way as well. There are a lot of incidents and bullies that kids never talk about.
If he loves reading, he's a different kid. That's a thing we have to all admit- in a child's world today,
reading is not the "cool thing". XBOX, wii, and whatever are the cool things, but he loves books, so he might not connect well with other kids who are obsessed with their latest game.
I would never discourage his reading. My parents thought I read too much, discouraged it,
and tried to force me into situations with people with whom I had nothing, literally nothing, in common.
It was embarrassing and I grew to resent them for it. There are good people in the world, and some day,
your son will meet some who will see him for who he is, and he'll make lifelong friends.
Another thing is that he is still a kid.
This is the biggest learning time when his mind is still young,
so it's great to get him reading. He'll keep that love for books
and dreaming the rest of his life, and he'll be grateful to you for it. :)
 
Do whatever makes you happy, push-pin is as good as poetry. If reading all day makes you happy, why feel guilty about it? People are morons anyways, they aren't that fun to socialize with.
 
Reading is good. It is better to read a lot than to end up like some of the people at school who have read one book in their life. A reader has a good imagination, which can lead to good things in life.
 
I didn't read much as a kid. I loved to write, but didn't read as much as I should have. Whatta paradox, I know.

Can kids read too much? Sure, but that's subjective. If I could go back in time to my childhood, would I read more? Sure as heck would. I'd read as voraciously as possible. Just like what's said in the song "Ooh La La" by The Faces, I wish I knew then what I know now.

I didn't get into consistently reading until my mid-teens. I wish I would have started earlier. Forced reading in school sort of hindered that, and eventually discouraged me.

When I started reading heavily, I'd burn the midnight oil on weekends and stay up unreasonably, egregiously late and read all the books around my room. From biographies on Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain to novels written by former wrestler Mick Foley. Things that interested me. Usually you'd think teens would be staying up late playing video games, and while that was a lifestyle of mine at one point, reading became a more prominent fixture in my life.

Embrace the fact that reading is a high priority in your household. I know you want your child to have friends, but the friends will come. Just let the wonderful exercise of reading take its beneficial, cognitive toll.
 
MrMojoRisin said:
I didn't read much as a kid. I loved to write, but didn't read as much as I should have. Whatta paradox, I know.

Can kids read too much? Sure, but that's subjective. If I could go back in time to my childhood, would I read more? Sure as heck would. I'd read as voraciously as possible. Just like what's said in the song "Ooh La La" by The Faces, I wish I knew then what I know now.

I didn't get into consistently reading until my mid-teens. I wish I would have started earlier. Forced reading in school sort of hindered that, and eventually discouraged me.
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Same.I had to look for books on my own since the schools books were complete crap.I finally grew up,and what opened me into reading and much as i am now was Along Came A Spider by James Patterson,I was around 13 or 14 if I remember correctly.

Did you have A.R. points?Those things got on my nerves all the time.
 
The Butcher said:
Same.I had to look for books on my own since the schools books were complete crap.I finally grew up,and what opened me into reading and much as i am now was Along Came A Spider by James Patterson,I was around 13 or 14 if I remember correctly.

Did you have A.R. points?Those things got on my nerves all the time.
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Ah, the Accelerated Reader business? Oh, heck yeah. I remember that crap. That was really popular while I was in Elementary school. I think I read about three books total at that time. While I was in middle school, it was still around, but not forced to be used by teachers, so therefore I doubt I really read anything during that time.

I started to truly become addicted to reading when I was a sophomore. I read "The Catcher in the Rye" (in my own free time; not forced) and loved it. Then I went on to read Bill Simmons' "Now I Can Die in Peace" and fell in love with reading.

Eventually I started reading Kurt Vonnegut's tomes, and that was that.
 
I learned to read when I was four by watching over my mother's shoulder when she read me bedtime stories. My parents read before bed so the little me did too, and forty-odd years later, the much larger me still does.

Reading expands horizons better than not much else can. A lot of my knowledge stems because I've read and studied my interests for decades. Once in a blue moon I'll run into someone who tells me "I never read". One can tell.

Children read too much? Poppycock.

Dave
 
Sin said:
I just wanted to share a thought that came to my mind recently and doesn't want to go away.
Is it possible that your kid is reading too much?
Is it possible that he or she is replacing the real world with the imaginary world from the books?
Should we put the limits and where are they?

Do you have any thoughts about this?
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Anything can be done to excess. Being well balanced would be the key, I guess. Limits might be good, but reading is definitely a good pastime. I'd be more worried about WHAT the kid is reading rather than the length of time.
 
"Is it possible that your kid is reading too much?" yes.. no problem rather than playing stupid Computer games.
 
So long as they don't read under the covers at night, in the dark, then no I don't think kids can read too much - reading is certainly better for them than watching TV or playing computer games.
 
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