Quote:
Originally Posted by DuskyRose
My parents didn't see the point or use in it...
My grandparents thought I read too much as well. (Young ladies should never sit and do nothing. That's what sewing and other such needle work were for. Keeps your hands busy and out of trouble. Have to always be productive.) None of my Aunts or Uncles read. None of my cousins. Neither of my sisters....
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Oh, the old "If it's not productive, it's a waste of time" argument. I often see this argument made by people who... eehrr... don't have a lot of money to spend. It almost feels as if these people try to wave away any entertainment away as unnecessary, to hide the fact that they can't afford it. (Or even, are too lazy to go to the library and borrow books there, for the extreme sum of €0.2 a piece or so.)
Still, my sister, who is neither poor nor rich (just a normal, average working person, with a decent, neither very low nor very high salary), seems to regard almost every pastime as a waste of time, except for watching television for hours on end in the evening.
I often fear for my three year old niece, who is probably going to be much smarter than her mother (and father) if she gets the right encouragement to read and study, if her current intelligence and curiosity is an indication.
However, she probably won't touch a book before she's six and starts to read in school, because both her parents faint as soon as they have to read so much as half an a4 page of text. Their reading life consists of a 5 inch screen, with sentences of 140 characters or so, at most.
It's a pity they live too far away for (very) regular visits, otherwise I would try and take that part of my niece's upbringing in hand myself.