"Go the (expletive) To Sleep . . . demeans children" and comparable to racist humor - Page 3

[Imakcerka]

Giving words power is dangerous. 

[Mama2ChicknLil]

I'm a new mom...just five weeks in. I've been known to read this book to my son in a calm relaxing voice at 3 am as I try to nurse him back to sleep. For the time being, while he doesn't understand the specific words, but more the feel of the words, it actually makes me feel better and helps, me find some humor in what otherwise is a stressful situation. Granted, I don't expect I will be reading this to him for too much longer, but in the meantime it gives dh and I a giggle while we suppress the urge to give our son up for adoption...kidding, of course.

I remember my mom once told me ” you can tell a baby you are going to dismember him as long as you do it sweetly with a smile on your face, and they will just smile and coo”
Odd thing to say, but now I get it...

[journeymom]

Lol! My dh likes to tell the dog, 'Whose the naughty dog? You're such a bad dog!  Yes, you're just a bad, bad doggy,"  in a happy, praising voice.  Cracks the kids up.

[StevensMommy]

Funny thing, the night after I had heard about this book, I was having a really BAD night with my (then) two month old. I had the punchline going through my head when my mom saw what was going on and said "you know, I was at work today and saw this book I think you need to read." My mother works at the library, so I figured she had found me another book on Zen parenting. Lo and behold, she had downloaded Go the F*** to Sleep on her laptop. And while I love my son dearly, the combination of him going to sleep and then reading that book just made my night.

[RStelle]

When DD was only sleeping 2-3 hours a night and we were going crazy from sleep deprivation I woke up once to DD crying and DP singing soothingly, "baby, you are driving me crazy, shut the f@#k up Baby, before I bring you back and get a baby that sleeps, just shut the f@#k up", I started laughing so hard, because I had thought the same thing so many times on sleep deprived nights. Sometimes having a sense of humor really helps!

This book is clearly not for kids, it's for parents, and I think it is more making fun of parents than kids. Of course we didn't think it was DD's fault that she couldn't sleep, the poor baby had colic. The joke is about our sleep-deprived craziness and that frustration that most parents feel at some point or other.

Edited by RStelle - 12/20/11 at 8:24am

[StevensMommy]

I don't care who you are, sleep depravation makes you think some pretty rash thoughts. We all love our little angels, and would never trade them for the world... but there has to be at least one night since their birth that we think something very derogatory or something along the lines of "now where was his receipt?!"

[journeymom]

Differences in preference for swearing I think accounts for differences in perception of the tone of this book.

We all love our little angels, and would never trade them for the world...

True.  However there was that moment when our first born was 3 days old and dh and I looked at each other and we agreed, "OK this has been interesting, but isn't the hospital supposed to come get her now?  Surely they didn't mean for us to keep her? She's supposed to live with responsible adults, not two kids goofing around."

[branditopolis]

Originally Posted by RStelle 

When DD was only sleeping 2-3 hours a night and we were going crazy from sleep deprivation I woke up once to DD crying and DP singing soothingly, "baby, you are driving me crazy, shut the f@#k up Baby, before I bring you back and get a baby that sleeps, just shut the f@#k up", I started laughing so hard, because I had thought the same thing so many times on sleep deprived nights. Sometimes having a sense of humor really helps!

This book is clearly not for kids, it's for parents, and I think it is more making fun of parents than kids. Of course we didn't think it was DD's fault that she couldn't sleep, the poor baby had colic. The joke is about our sleep-deprived craziness and that frustration that most parents feel at some point or other.

I had a similar song the first few weeks with DS home.  It went something like, "i love you sweetheart, but if you don't go to sleep I'm dropping you off at the fire station...."  It's become a running joke in my house.  As long as my son doesn't speak english (or anything, as he's 12weeks old) he's just listening to the tone, so i get to vent some frustrations while he's being soothed by the sound of my voice... it's totally win-win!
 

Originally Posted by Mama2ChicknLil 

I'm a new mom...just five weeks in. I've been known to read this book to my son in a calm relaxing voice at 3 am as I try to nurse him back to sleep. For the time being, while he doesn't understand the specific words, but more the feel of the words, it actually makes me feel better and helps, me find some humor in what otherwise is a stressful situation. Granted, I don't expect I will be reading this to him for too much longer, but in the meantime it gives dh and I a giggle while we suppress the urge to give our son up for adoption...kidding, of course.

I remember my mom once told me ” you can tell a baby you are going to dismember him as long as you do it sweetly with a smile on your face, and they will just smile and coo”
Odd thing to say, but now I get it...

 It's totally true! I once told DS I was going to go buy a gallon of milk and never come back but the playful tone made him giggle.  It made my frustration seem silly to me to actually say something, and even sillier that he would laugh.  And how can I stay frustrated with a sweet, giggling baby like that? heheh.

[Super~Single~Mama]

My almost 3yo DS found my copy of this book, and I won't read it to him (but I'll let him look at the pictures for now, that won't last long!). So everytime he finds it I say, "DS, thats a mommy book. It's only for mommy."

His response?

"Mommy, we can share the book. We can share it, and it can be yours AND mine. Lets share the book and read it together."

Umm....how about not?

[seawitch]

Uhhhh my favorite book of all time, I think. We've had some ROUGH nights with two bad sleepers. I could tell so many stories but I'd rather not re-live the misery.

My husband and I both swear horribly and think nothing of it. It's not like we're sociopaths or that we don't love one another just because our "family speech code" includes bad words. We're perfectly wholesome otherwise. (The music we listen to has swears in it as well quite often - as long as the music is good it's not a problem, although I won't let them listen to violent or sexually explicit music, I do have standards.) I'm perfectly socially acceptable normally, like I won't swear at a bank teller or the preschool teacher... but when we're at home yes there are a lot of swears. I'm not being mean if I swear. Yes, I have been known to say bad words in front of the kids. I don't swear AT them, at least not in anger, but yeah I have been known to use the words like "this room is incredibly f-ing dirty, we need to clean it up and make it nice, let's sing the clean up song" or something. *The kids* don't use swears, and they even know they're bad words and sometimes point it out to me, at which point I apologize and we move on, no big deal. We all also use please and thank you and good manners otherwise. They also know that they're never supposed to use them, especially in public, because people might get hurt feelings, etc. But it's really not a big deal otherwise. (And for those who want to argue that only uneducated people swear... nah... that isn't true. I've known some very educated people who swear up a storm.)

Now with that all said and done... I still say this book is awesome.