My Beef With Dr. Seuss...

[eatmisery]

I have a problem with The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. The mother leaves her two small children home alone. Only their fish, the wisest one in the group, keeps them company. And a stranger comes into the house, makes a mess, cleans up, and leaves. And the children are faced with a moral dilemma at the end that entails lying to their mother. Huh?

What does this teach our children?

While I love the sing-song cadence of the words, I cannot understand why such a book would be written. Yeah, the Cat in the Hat forces himself into their home, brings friends in, makes a mess, and only leaves when the boy physically demands that he and his friends get out. The fish is the smartest one in the book, urging the children all along that the Cat and his Two Things shouldn't be in the house when the mother's not home. Do they listen? No. It's not until the house is trashed that the boy kicks them all out. And the two little kids are lucky that the Cat cleans up after himself.

The end of the book leaves children wondering whether or not they should lie to their mother about having strangers in the house while the mother is gone. Yeah, okay...the kid does kick them out near the end, but he never should've let them in at all!

I just don't get it. While I love reading the book to my son because of its smooth wording and friendly rhythm, I just can't get past its content; letting strangers in the house, the mother leaving the young kids home alone, the dilemma of whether or not to lie to your mother, etc.

If Theodore Geisel a.k.a. Dr. Seuss were alive today, I'd ask him what the hell he was thinking when he wrote this book. What's your take on it? Am I reading into it too much? Are kids supposed to not let strangers in because they may mess up your house? Or is it about standing up for yourself? Whatever the lesson is that kids are supposed to get from the book, I think it's a pretty sucky way to teach it. (Yeah...sucky is a word today.)

Do you remember how I feel about Santa's and his bully reindeer? Why do some children's books/stories/nursery rhymes/songs have such awful concepts?

Can you tell I'm irritated by this? Gah.

[daisy_may_day]

Feb. 4, 2007 at 2:37 PM yet more proof as to why children need mothers AND fathers...

[southernmomma]

Feb. 4, 2007 at 3:30 PM Yeah I think you are reading to much into it. It is after all a book a fantasy story..it is funny that you focused more on the kids being left alone then a talking  cat and fish ha ha. Kids that are in the age group don't focus on what is actually happening in the story. They just love the cool words and the fun of it. If we start picking apart simple pleasures like dr. suess what about the other things that kids love...after all are there really big purple talking dinasors...or a huge big red dog....a goofy moody duck that wears a shirt but no pants. It is all for the innocense of the kids imagination. The other stuff like not letting strangers in or lying is up to us to teach them in real life not in fun silly story time.  

[QuirkyScorpion]

Feb. 4, 2007 at 3:54 PM

Ok.............did you not watch the RoadRunner and the Coyote?  Dr. Seuss is no different.  It is the lesson you as the parent choose to express.

 It is the cadence.  The cadence helps with learning.  ABC's have a cadence.  If you can put studies into rhyme it helps older kids do better testing.

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

Also, don't believe everything you read.   Dr. Spock wrote baby books without having children and dogged on Sesame Street.   My children and grandchild LOVE Sesame St..