My sister texted me today and asked if I would let my 12 year old daughter read the Twilight series.
So, I'm posing the question to you . . . would you? Why or why not?
For me, I asked her how she was going to prevent her daughter from reading it. I think if a kid is going to read something, he/she will. It's better to educate them, tell them there's some parts in book 3 & 4 that probably aren't appropriate to read, but keep the lines of communication open in case the daughter has questions. Plus, do you really think a 12 year old will understand everything? There really isn't anything that is point blank spelled out. Most of the romantic scenes imply what's going on.
I also asked my sister where her daughter is at in the 1st book. She said she started it yesterday and is on page 120ish. She said she told her daughter she could only read book 1 & 2. I said, if you let her finish book 1 & 2, and clearly since she's read to page 120 already, she must like the book, how can she end at book 2? Could you? My sister also said her daughter's friend is reading the books behind her mom's back. Would you rather your daughter read it behind your back or in the open?
To me, if you teach your children correct principles then hopefully if, while reading a book that one might feel uncomfortable, the child either skips the parts or puts the book down. I, personally, read far worse books at age 12-13. I, admittedly, picked up some trashy romance and read the whole thing. At least there aren't any explicit details in the Twilight series.
And, by the way, this 12 year old girl did not just pick it up on her own. Her English teacher at school started a Twilight book club. That's where the interest came from. Had the teacher not started this group, my sister probably could've held off exposing her daughter to the books for at least another year or two.
So, what do you think? What's your opinion?
3 comments:
I wouldn't care if my daughter read them at age 12. I don't think they are bad books or have anything inapropriate in them. The feelings that they feel are totally natural and I think it is great that they wait until marriage to become "intimate".
I am of that same mind too. I found nothing wrong with the books at all, so I would have no problem. It was my 12 year old niece (well she was 12 when Twilight came out) who told me about the books in the first place. I feel like SM did a great job of showing natural human feelings, and that one has the ability and choice to overcome what your body is telling you it wants, when you know taking it would be wrong. I think that is a MAJOR theme of the book, so I would be happy to let my daughter read it and learn that lesson.
Funny, I was just discussing this with my sister on Friday. She has a 13 year old and I asked her the same thing. She laughed at my naivete (sp?). She said they talk about far worse than anything in the book on a regular basis (this does not represent everyone obviously but it's probably realistic of most teens these days). I was not as concerned about the physical stuff because they do show actual restraint. What I worried about was the way they are soooo obsessed with each other. I think it's really unhealthy and I worry that a young girl may get the false impression that this is the way it should be. However, I completely agree with Courtney in that first, if a kid wants to read a book ,they'll find a way to do it, and 2nd, I can think of a lot worse books that a 12 year old could read (like the ones I read when I was little). I would probably just bore my child with discussion before she picked up the book and talk to her a lot during to make sure she realized that it was a complete work of fiction. I do think once you start reading the series, I'm not sure how you could stop and she's even more likely to sneak behind her mom's back to do it after reading 1 or 2 of them.
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