Mother's Day is right around the corner, and for a lot of us, it can make us feel quite melancholy about our motherhood journeys. We may spend hours scrolling, looking at photos of our kids when they were babies, or watching home movies.
We might sneak into the basement to dig out boxes of their drawings or smell their old clothes, hoping to get a familiar whiff. Or if we really want to go over the edge, we might grab a copy of Love You Forever and a giant box of tissues and settle in for a quick read.
If you're a parent, you have probably read Love You Forever or you have at least heard of it. The book by Robert Munsch has made many moms cry, including ourselves, but we recently read a mom's take on the beloved classic and were shook.
Author Marlene Kern Fischer, 60, shared her thoughts in a now-viral post on her Facebook page, Thoughts from Aisle 4, and pointed out that the book — while saccharinely sweet — is also kind of creepy. And friends, she's not wrong.
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Fischer made an astonishing admission.
Right out of the gate, she knew her opinion would be controversial, but she told her readers she'd been keeping a secret for a long time. "I can no longer hide my true feelings. I hope that those of you who disagree with me will not judge me too harshly … I hate the book Love You Forever. There, I've said it," she wrote.
At first, we thought, how could anyone hate that beautiful book about motherhood and the sweet little tune the mother sings? And Fischer agreed, it starts fine, but then it goes off the rails for her as the child gets older.
"As the baby grows and becomes a toddler, even though he's difficult, the mom continues to rock him and sing. Then he became a nine-year-old, and the tradition continued. Fine. But then the little boy becomes a teenager, and this is where it becomes weird; the mother CONTINUES to go into his room to rock him and sing to him," she explained.
What teen would allow that kind of thing?
We've known plenty of teenage boys in our lives, including our own children, and we are sure there would be some strange looks if we crawled into bed with them at night.
Fischer laid it all out.
"Okay, when my boys were teens, if they had caught me rocking them, they would have gone ballistic and probably screamed, 'WTF?"' before putting a lock on their door. How did this teenager not wake up? Did the mother drug him?" she wrote.
The mother in the book continued to sneak around and go into her son's apartment as he got older, and Fischer wondered if he ever had a love interest. "Did she scare a few companions off – "Oh excuse me, please move over so that I can pick up your boyfriend/husband and rock him?" Does no one else find this incredibly unsettling????"
And what about when the mother gets older?
Fischer points out that the son is then rocking his mom when she is old and sick because he's guilt-ridden.
She explained that she received the book as a new mom, and it just gave her the ick. And now as a mother of three grown sons and a grandmother, her opinion hasn't changed.
"I hope that if you love this book, we can still be friends. But if you suggest coming over and singing to me in the middle of the night, we are done," the post continued.
Of course, her post caused quite a debate.
The fierce defenders of Love You Forever thought the mother of three sons and grandmother of a grandson was totally off base.
Oner person wrote, "10000000% over thinking this book and missed its point.
It's just about the unconditional love between a momma and her child and how she taught that child how to love his baby ❤️. It's not weird or creepy if you look at it through a mommas heart and what it's like to painfully love your child."
But this person totally agreed with her: "I love the meaning behind it and as a kid I never thought that much of it. But as an adult.. watching her creep into his house through the window was weird AF. I think the illustrations make it worse than it would have been without. Lol."
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Fischer didn't mean to upset the entire internet.
Her post caused a lot of ire among lovers of the book. She tells CafeMom she understands the book is a metaphor and that it isn't supposed to be taken literally, but the whole thing is way too much for young moms to take.
"I think it's hard for new moms to think of themselves growing old and their babies growing up and moving away. It's a sobfest," she says.
She adds that the whole thing was just a random thought. "My post wasn't really supposed to be taken seriously," she explains. But, of course, some people took it way too seriously.
As a mom to three grown sons, she has a bit of wisdom to share with younger moms.
"It's hard to 'enjoy it all' because being a mom isn't easy. But enjoy what you can. And yeah, don't look too far down road," she says.
