Forest of the Plains

Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch is marketed as a children's book, and is apparently loved by people of all ages. The first time I read it (at least 10 years ago), I had trouble finishing it. And the more I read the worse it was. Occasionally I am reminded of this book, and each time I start shuttering. This is a very freaky book that discourages the normal boundaries that should be observed between parents and children.

The premise of the book is good. The song that the mother sings is nice: "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." I just have trouble with the execution. Here's one of the scariest excerpts that sounds like something from a horror movie:

"But sometimes on dark nights the mother got into her car and drove across town. If all the lights in her son's house were out, she opened his bedroom window, crawled across the floor, and looked up over the side of his bed. If that great big man was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang." (You can find the full text here.)

AAGH! I can just hear the horror music in the background! There is never a reason for a mother to enter her adult son's home in the middle of the night through the window, then start rocking him. Has the author never heard of boundaries?!? Children do need to know that they are loved, but they also need to know that their mother won't crawl in their window at night when they're 30 years old. Creepy!