Letting a Kid Rip Up Books Will Definitely Come Back to Haunt You.

One of the worst spankings I ever got as a child was when I tore a few pages in one of my sister's books. I did it because I knew my sister liked the book, and I was trying to get revenge. However, my sister went and told on me, and my mom want awf. My mom was absolutely furious that I'd disrespect a book in any way and I received one of those classic kinds of beatdowns that are almost comically cinematic:

Don't*smack*you*smack*ever*smack*rip*SMACK*up*smack*a*smack*book*smack*again.

Yeah, mom let me have it and I got the message: Books were to be treasured, or else. So it was with horror that I just read a story over at the Daily Mail about some Chinese parents who regularly let their 4-year-old son entertain himself by ripping up books. The mom says they let their son do this because they "don't have much time for reading here."

Oh, okaaaay. I don't have as much time as I'd like for reading, either, but you'd best believe my sons have been taught that books are for reading, not ripping.

This mom and dad, though, they let their son tear up old books for fun "since it was easy to buy very cheap old books down the market."

Can't you just hear the kid saying, "Mommy, daddy, can we go to the park to play?"

"No son, I don't have time. Why don't you go in your room and tear up some more old books...make sure you rip 'em to shreds, dear!"

After years of ripping up books for entertainment, it turns out that to junior, paper is paper, and the Book Karma Fairy decided to pay a little visit to the household. All that fun the boy had tearing up paper translated into him getting into the parents' secret stash of cash and ripping that to shreds, too. 

This child ripped up almost $5,000 dollars that the family says they were saving to get a new apartment. Seriously. And you know the parents weren't brushing destroyed cash off the way they brushed off the book ripping. I read the whole article and didn't see nary a quote from mom or dad that even remotely resembled their nonchalance over the books. Nope, no "It's no big deal. It's very easy to just get more money down at the market," at all. 

One of the local banks in China has decided to take pity on them and give the family new money to replace the ripped up ones. Pfft, we know that they don't bank at an American bank, right? Can you even see Bank of America doing something like that? I sure can't. Even when I get fraud on my bank account, BofA reps will be on the phone talking crazy like, "Well are you sure you didn't make these charges," which causes me to have to point out to them that there's no way I could've been to nearly two-dozen gas stations across Southern California within five minutes--even if I had magical, beam-me-up powers.

But I digress.

Let all y'all who are even thinking of teaching your children--or anybody else's children--that it's alright to rip up books take notice of this cautionary tale. Also, I just can't help but wish that this entire family could meet my mom. She's not spanking anybody these days, but she sure might come out of retirement for this extra special case.