By Heidi Hess
Well, we are now counting down the days for the 2024/2025 school year. For me, it is the end of an era. My son will be graduating high school and starting college in the late summer. I have mixed feelings about this, as I’m sure you can imagine. I’m proud of both of my kids. Their journeys have been, and continue to be, completely different – unique. Just like them. They have their own style, mannerisms… things that have nothing to do with me and as strange as it seems, I am quite proud of that. Why? Simply put it means that I gave them enough space to figure things out on their own. As a stay at home mom, that is hard.
I think it’s really important to, at a certain point, let the kids decide or do for themselves. The things that make us us … should be determined by each individual person. My job is to monitor, to make sure their choices are healthy (no, you aren’t drinking Monster) and safe (nothing good happens in parking lots after midnight. Your curfew is midnight), and then to lay down the foundation. Besides helping them develop good healthy friendships and making good choices, I’ve really tried to instill a love of literature or just reading in general. It’s one of the things I’ve insisted upon.
Wanna watch a movie? Did we read the book first? Extra time on our hands – read a book. Trip to the library and can we get some DVD’s? You can get two DVD’s and as many books as you want. Time for bed – snuggling and a book. Too much TV? Book. Summer vacation – rewards for reading books. You see where I’m going with this…
And now, my son, packing for a trip to Universal, is being forced to listen to an audio book I have playing in the background. His taste in many things (movies, books, music) tends to be a little darker than normal, but the apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree. I’m listening to Reincarnation Blue by Michael Poore. There is a lot of dark humor and has made me laugh out loud. My son, who is more interested in his music lately, peaks his head around the corner – “What is this?” I tell him. Humm… he seems interested. They say that everyone likes to read, you just have to find your book. But now it has me questioning, does the book choose you?
I think I’ve harped on this before in my column, but if you want your kids to read, they need to catch you reading. And I have the solution. Read It Write It Book and Writing Festival is happening Saturday, June 14, 2025 in the Mall at Wellington Green. Think of it as an adult book fair. Although, it’s really for all ages and it’s absolutely free. That’s right – something to do on a summer day and it’s indoors and FREE admission. Find your new author obsession. Buy a book and have it signed. Bring the kids and have them watch you engage with the author and then – here’s the real challenge – read the book and make sure they see you reading it.
You don’t have to wear the same clothes or even agree on political view points, but it’s important that your kids see you, or in my case, hear you reading.
