Parenting by Kindle, Mr Stink, and the curse of editing
Sometimes life takes unexpected turns. Here’s a parenting anecdote from last night that shows how my family’s lives have changed over the last year, thanks to Mr. Bezos and his company, Amazon.
My son’s off school, ill. It’s only a cold, so nothing to worry about, but it’s still hit him hard. Yesterday he spent the day dozing downstairs on the sofa under his quilt, ate next-to-nothing, and volunteered to go to bed early (which, as any parent will know, is unheard of under normal circumstances).
Naturally he woke up again at the wrong time. It was about 10:30 pm and the poor lad was in a right state. He loves us to read him books, but every book we offered to read to calm him down was met by wails of distress. He told us endlessly that: ‘all parents are useless’. Anything we suggested just made him cry more.
Then someone suggested getting another David Walliams book. For those not in the UK, Walliams is a well-known comedian, and his surname isn’t a mistake: he was born Williams but there was another David Williams already registered with actor’s union. Anyway, he wrote some children’s books. My cousin got me one for Christmas last year, Gangsta Granny, and it was surprisingly good.
Either Mr Stink or David Walliams, can’t remember which
The idea was so unexpected, and welcome, that the mood of panic was pierced, and our frantic boy waited patiently for us to start reading his new book. We didn’t need to go to a bookshop, which was just as well late at night as they would all be closed. The WiFi was on, and my wife’s Kindle already there, so my wife bought the book via the Kindle, without even getting out of her chair.
My son loved the story.
And so did we.
Problem solved, thanks to Walliams’ book, Mr Stink, and the Amazon Kindle, which let us do something that only a year ago would have been unthinkable.
Thank you, Mr Bezos, without whom last night would have been hell.
Tomorrow I’ll post a sequel to this anecdote in: Mr Stink and the Curse of Editing…
