balancing the seesaw

I had library patrons of two extremes of parenting in one day's time.

The first mother said "Could you point me to the books (picture books) that have a good message for my daughter?"

Well, now, seriously, what picture book doesn't intend to contain a good message??

And I swallowed a whole lot of inappropriate responses and started showing her books she clearly knew nothing about - McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings, Madeline, Babar, Angelina, Tacky, Lily, Mo Willems, Cynthia Rylant, Curious George, on and on - nada.

Sigh.

Then came the mother who asked, "My daughter has read the Iliad and the Odyssey - what would you suggest next?"

"How old is your daughter?"

"Eleven".

Again, seriously, how many 11-year-olds are ready for those classic works?

And after about 20 minutes of attempting to guide the daughter (aka, the mother!) into something a mite more attainable, I came back and discovered she had chosen Les Miserables and Three Musketeers -  each with more than 1,000 pages, never mind the span of content!

One parent not even peripherally engaged and the other up to her neck in pressuring.

I recognize that the best my mother could do, with her allotment of education, time and responsibilities was largely encouraging me to explore books, and quoting poetry and stories to me from memory. But in this advanced current state of avalanching information, I think it is a tricky road to balanced enlightened parenting and sadly too few travelers.