Dork Diaries causing these issues?
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Anonymous
| My 10-year-old is obsessed with the dork diaries book series, and I very naïvely thought it was appropriate material just based on the look of the covers. I’ve noticed a dramatic change in her behavior like being mean to her brother and using rude language. I chalked it up to her preteen early puberty stage, but I took a look at the latest book she was reading and now I see she’s getting it from this book series! She’s a voracious reader and she will have a meltdown if she cannot read these books anymore. How is the best way to handle? Ban the books entirely or make her realize how shallow and inappropriate the content is but let her read them? Anyone else who has dealt with this specific issue (censoring what your child reads), please help me out here! She already has very limited screen time and access to pop culture, doesn’t have a phone, so reading is really her daily pleasure. |
Anonymous
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When my DD was in kinder & 1st grade, the hot books were Junie B. Jones. And all the little girls reading them became super bratty, just like the main character. I told DD that these books were not good for her, and I would help her find books that wouldn't cause her to have bad behavior, because it wouldn't be fun if she got punished. And then we went to the library and did that.
Since your kid is 10, I would give her the choice. "Since you've been reading the Dork Diaries, your behavior has become unacceptable. You do A, B, and C, which I can tell you lift straight from these books. The Dork Diaries are a bad influence on you. I know you love them, so I am going to put you in control. If you can manage your behavior and stop doing A, B and C, then you can keep reading them. If you don't stop within two days, I am taking the books away, and we will find other books that are conducive to better behavior. Go think about what I said and let me know which direction you've chosen to go in." |
Anonymous
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Great advice- thank you!!!
-OP |
Anonymous
| Can you read some sections together and talk about the behavior? Like "gosh, that character just called his brother a wet worm. That must make the brother feel sad. I wonder why he did that. How else could he have handled that?" Shying away from books is hard and may not always be possible, but reading together and pointing out places that don't match with your values can be helpful. |
Anonymous
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She might be getting specific wording or phrases from the books, but the attitude is coming from her age and her friends. Banning the books is not going to stop it. It is absolutely worth discussion/consequences, and those consequences can include losing those books if that’s what she cares about.
-Mother of a ten year old girl who doesn’t read Dork diaries and still figures out how to be mean to her brother and rude to me. See also, rock music doesn’t make you use drugs and playing D&D doesn’t turn you into a satan worshipping murderer. |
Anonymous
+1. Address the behavior itself. The book may be influencing her behavior, but she will always have influences. Her behavior is her own. |
Anonymous
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Give her the skills to read them critically.
"I heard in that book, Character does X, Y, and Z. You know, that doesn't really feel like kind behavior to me. What do you think?" And if you have to "I've noticed you doing that also, and it doesn't seem quite right." My kid had a phase at the same age where he really liked a TV show that had super-sassy kids. They were just a bit older than him and he glommed on to that way of talking -- we had a couple of chats about how they were a bit much. |
Anonymous
Quitting the books might well stop it if that’s what stated it. My kids spent two weeks calling each other “gits,” which they clearly got from Harry Potter and not the playground. We talked about it and I warned we couldn’t read grown up books if they borrowed the bad parts and they stopped. They didn’t insult each other before or since. (They do other things but name calling just isn’t their jam.). So sometimes you can tell what is causing specific bad behavior. |
Anonymous
| We saw this with Disney and Nick shows with kids being rude to parents and teachers. |
Anonymous
Junior B Jones is the worst. Horrible grammar on top of the poor behavior. |
Anonymous
| Why do these authors produce this crap!? |
Anonymous
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Junie B Jones and the Weird School books were quickly banned from our house. Junie B Jones was problematic because of her awful behavior and how lenient every adult was. The kids were allowed to behave horrifically. Weird School had bullying, misogyny (look at how the male characters treated the female characters), and the Teachers were written to be complete idiots. I found them disrespectful and tolerant of awful behavior.
A lot of books for kids include a certain amount of teasing and bad behavior but you normally can see how that is balanced by kids getting in trouble for said behavior. I have not bought the Dork Diaries but I am fine skipping them. They don't sound like a series that I would appreciate. |
Anonymous
Because it makes them lots of money. Some folks advocate that you let kids read what they want, regardless of content, because it is reading! Or parents see the books and think that they are just books and not a big deal. Different people have different tolerances. |
Anonymous
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My DD loved these books and no she is not getting the attitude from the books
because the main character who is writing diary entries is a huge pushover and people pleaser who never says or does anything mean and thinks the mean girl is terrible. |
Anonymous
This! If OP's daughter is getting this from the book, then she's emulating the villain, which is sort of a problem. The book doesn't encourage bullying or name-calling, it just writes about it. It would be like if your kid starting reading Harry Potter and thought Voldemort was the hero of the story.... "my child has recently started reading the Harry Potter series and is now starting to organize a group of pure blooded neighbor children to both worship my child as their leader and to systematically eliminate those that aren't pure-blooded. are these books a bad influence on my child?" |