Nordic children’s literature from the 1970’s and 1980’s was next level.

I found an old book that I’m reading as a bedtime story for my six year old. It presents itself as a light-hearted funny story about a country boy who moves to the big city and sets out looking for friends. That sounds innocent enough, right?

Think again.

By any contemporary standard this sounds completely insane. But the story is actually well written, funny and age appropriate for my kid. It manages to see the world through a children’s logic, not unlike that of The Good Soldier Svejk, and sees the world from the child’s perspective, something that a lot of the contemporary slop billed as children’s literature fails at doing with it’s safe and inoffensive cardboard cutout characters written by authors who mistakes bland middle class conformity for relatability and recoil at the thought of any kind of conflict.

Starting in the late 1960’s a generation of writers and other producers of children’s culture broke with the earlier tradition of idyllic or moralistic tales. Influenced by 1968, the new left and the anti-authoritarian pedagogy of the time they wrote more realistically about the issues faced by children in their daily lives, such as bullying, divorce or social vulnerability and parental pressure, adopting a stance of solidarity with the children. They took children seriously both as readers and as characters, respecting them as competent, complex individuals. Many works from this period are still loved by children and parents alike, exactly for being serious high quality cultural products despite having children as their audiences.

But still, starting a children’s story with social murder and dispossession by usury capital is fucking brutal.

Anyone else ever have to watch the same movie three times in 24 hours, and subsequently come to the conclusion that 2003’s cat in the hat movie is actually extremely lit?

It’s a holiday week in America, so all the drama of my family is coming around again. I don’t wanna go all r/AITA about it because who the fuck cares. Anyway, my partner and I don’t really being around my brother’s in-laws. His partner has a two sisters, each with multiple kids. All the in-laws’ kids and my nibling (my brother’s kid) hang out together all the time. Same school for a few of them and my brother’s MIL watches them all at the same time a couple days a week. Honestly, they’re fine people, okay even. My partner and I just don’t jive with them. We have no relationship with these people other than them being related to my brother’s spouse.

But that’s the thing, they are my brother’s family. So it kinda bums me out that he habitually invites all of his in-laws to my parents’ for holidays. Often neither he nor my parents will telegraph that the in-laws are coming. One time all my brother’s in-laws came to one of my kid’s birthdays. Granted my kid’s birthday is near a holiday, but my parents agreed to host and planned for my kid to have their birthday celebration. We wanted it to just be “our” family.

To complicate things more, over time my brother’s kid has become a bit of a jerk. They’re bossy and kind of mean. My kids have wanted to see their cousin less and less over the past year. So my partner and I have to prepare our kids to be around their cousin. We were just informed, today, that my brother’s in-laws are going to be at my parent’s house for the 4th of July. To avoid a lot of consternation, my partner and I have made other plans. Which of course has caused a whole slue of drama in the family. Really fun.

I was just completely taken out this weekend. I was sick last week and so were the kids so we all ended up taking some days off. I wasn’t feeling completely better on Friday but I thought I should go into the office to sort out some things that would have been easier in person.

That ended up being a huge mistake because I was so tired and had a massive headache. Immediately after work I had booked tickets to go watch Wall-ee in an actual theatre so I couldn’t just go home and crash. I then had one of those situations that was terrible for me but great for the kids. Turns out it was a whole event for recycling day or something, so there were activities like building your own robot from cardboard, stamping tote bags, and painting a can to put a succulent in a bit like the plant in the movie. I helped one of the kids make a Wall-ee they were really proud of, and we ended up sitting in a seat that won a prize before the movie. But I felt like shit the whole time and wanted to go home.

The office and movie wiped me out. I ended up sleeping until after midday on Saturday and having a few other naps as well, same for Sunday. I was just out of commission all weekend. At least its conference week at work this week so I can just stay home and not do anything to recharge.

But then it turns out one of the kids has hand foot and mouth. So they’re at home this week. I’ll take carer’s leave at the end of the week for more proper time off. The kids were just sick last week as well so the whole contradiction of sending the kids to childcare so you can work, just for the kids and yourself to become sick and unable to work/go to childcare is becoming really apparent right now.

We have seen Mesa Verda, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and the Sand Dunes. It was a lot of driving and I think we might plan to see Mesa Verda and the Dunes again when the kids are older. Staying at the in-laws has been… Interesting. Mostly fine. We have been having the strangest tech issues all vaca. My phone battery is clearly dying. Reporting like 2% battery then rebooting only to say it has 50% battery… My SOs smart watch just bricked it. So I’m looking forward to a new phone and she’s replacing her watch with a fitbit air. It’s been a good vacation overall.