DD is crying.

[dorothy]

She is 11 and has just read through the entire Little House series. She is sad that God did not let her be born during pioneer times. She wishes we lived in a simple place , everything was made from scratch, she was learning how to sew, and could have farm animals. Reality check: we live in a BIG city, shop at Whole Foods, we do not own a needle and thread, and have not one pet!

 

I said "Go for it!" Learn to bake and sew, grow a vegetable garden, dress in prairie dresses.

 

Is she a romantic? Do other girls get worked up like this? What do you do with a child who longs for (feels a part of) the past?

[dragons in the flower bed]

Is she a romantic? Do other girls get worked up like this? What do you do with a child who longs for (feels a part of) the past?

 

That was me, too, at 11, only I was crying because I was not born into the Star Trek universe. I say, encourage her and indulge her passion. Let her pretend as much as she wants. Help her get involved in reenactment.

[Barb_]

She is 11 and has just read through the entire Little House series. She is sad that God did not let her be born during pioneer times. She wishes we lived in a simple place , everything was made from scratch, she was learning how to sew, and could have farm animals. Reality check: we live in a BIG city, shop at Whole Foods, we do not own a needle and thread, and have not one pet!

 

I said "Go for it!" Learn to bake and sew, grow a vegetable garden, dress in prairie dresses.

 

Is she a romantic? Do other girls get worked up like this? What do you do with a child who longs for (feels a part of) the past?

 

Do you think it could be more about losing the world she just left? If she read through all the books in the series, the characters would seem like family and the setting and situations real. She could be grieving that she will never again read the books for the first time and live immersed in their world again. I've done this in the past with books I've strongly connected with and so have my daughters. She's at the perfect age for it.

 

Barb

[Jennifer in NH]

That was me, too, at 11, only I was crying because I was not born into the Star Trek universe. I say, encourage her and indulge her passion. Let her pretend as much as she wants. Help her get involved in reenactment.

 

:iagree: and get that girl a sewing needle and some thread! Have her bake some bread from scratch, it's pretty simple.

[RebeccaS]

I think maybe she is a bit of a romantic. The fact is, a lot of the lesser things are left out of such books, imho. Things like trekking to outhouses in the dead of winter, the fear and reality of starvation, sickness, infant mortality, things we take for granted. I really thought about those things once I became a mother to a boy who needed corrective heart surgery and a feeding tube. It really hit home that had I lived in those times, like I always wanted to as a kid, my son would be dead. Thanks to living now, he is alive and healthy, but not long ago (or maybe longer than I think!:glare:) I was just like her. I still am a bit. Okay, maybe a lot. I so wanted to be on that PBS Frontier House show. I would encourage her to try her hand at sewing, cooking, baking whatever pioneer thing sparks her interest. But, perhaps you could gently remind her of the wonderful things this life has to offer, too.

[3lilreds in NC]

That was me, too, at 11, only I was crying because I was not born into the Star Trek universe. I say, encourage her and indulge her passion. Let her pretend as much as she wants. Help her get involved in reenactment.

 

Rose, I knew I liked you!! Wouldn't you love to be able to order anything you wanted to eat and have it appear like magic?

 

When I was a kid I was *convinced* that I was the only person in my family who did not have magical powers. Who knew there would one day be a technical term for such a person: "muggle." :D I am now fairly certain that I am one in an entire family of muggles. Heh.

 

Having grown up near my grandparents' farm, I have no desire to learn how to kill chickens. There are parts of the books that sound fun, and I suppose it would be if you could pick and choose what you wanted to do. ;) I'd say let her give it a try. Maybe she will be great at hand sewing!

[dirty ethel rackham]

Do you think it could be more about losing the world she just left? If she read through all the books in the series, the characters would seem like family and the setting and situations real. She could be grieving that she will never again read the books for the first time and live immersed in their world again. I've done this in the past with books I've strongly connected with and so have my daughters. She's at the perfect age for it.

 

Barb

 

Oh, Barb, I so agree! That is exactly how I felt when I finished reading those books. I remember being so sad that there weren't any more books and that reading them again would not be the same for me. To this day, the Little House books are a treasure from childhood. When we went to DeSmet this summer, I don't know who was more excited, my daughter or me!

[Dawn in OH]

I was really depressed when I finished those books for the first time as a child also. While they are still good a second, third, or tenth time through, it's never going to be the same as the first time. And with the Little House books you really feel like a part of the family. I also wanted to live in that time. Laura Ingalls did an amazing job of making it sound romantic and adventurous. She doesn't say much about the agony of the illnesses they suffered, the true hardships of poverty and harsh winters, spoiled crops, and trekking to the outhouse in the dead of winter. It sounds like your daughter is having a fairly normal reaction for a girl her age. I would encourage her interests in baking, sewing, etc and help her along where you can. It would be a great homeschooling experience for and be nice skills to have when she's older.

[Kidlit]

Oh, this is so funny! My girls are enamored of the Little House books (well, audiobooks, actually). They call me and dh Ma and Pa, call each other Laura and Mary, etc. I even blogged about it! My girls are much younger, so there's not that sense of loss, etc.

 

I remember feeling this way myself often as a child. I LOVED L.M. Montgomery's books as a young teen and spent lots of time acting out scenes, etc., from the Anne stories. I would actually cry when I finished reading them. I think it is a combination of feeling out of place in the current century and the sense of sadness over being through with something you so thoroughly enjoyed.

[dangermom]

They're wonderful skills to learn and a lot of fun for a young girl. I'm always impressed now when I read the Little House books how fun she makes it all sound. As an adult, I notice all the deprivation and hard work--how Carrie is is always thin and delicate, probably because of too little food at some point, how the Hard Winter is terrifying, all that stuff. But she brings out all the fun and joy and satisfaction to be found.

 

Anyway, reading about the Ingalls family for the first time is something you only get to do once! And what's wrong with being a bit of a romantic anyway? :D

[dorothy]

She was so glad and cried and cried! We then spoke about what she wanted to do with the things that spoke to her. I also shared how I loved the pioneer life when I was her age and pretended to farm the land, wore prairie dresses, and longed for potatoes cooked right on the fire. :) Again, she was so glad. She likes that people were self-sufficient, made everything with their hands, and lived in close communities. She said she did not like industrialism, suburban sprawl, and processed products! We talked about how she could use this self-knowledge for her future - be an environmentalist, a green architect, an urban planner for small development, an attorney for preserving historic sites and small communities or farmers. She liked this a lot. And, she says she is throwing out all of her jeans and wearing prairie skirts from now on, along with the baking and sewing.

 

Thanks for all of the encouraging responses.

[WTMindy]

I totally remember wishing I had been born in Little House on the Prairie days. Now that I'm adult and know how much it work it would have been I cry with gratefulness! ;-)

[coffeefreak]

OOHHHH! You should totally get her "The Prairie Primer," and the "Little House Cookbook," and there's a TON of activity books that tell you how to make corn cob dolls and such!!! :w00t:Can I come over and play too?

[Carol in Cal.]

I liked the idea of being pretty self-sufficient, but still having tools to help with the drudgery. I thought that the most perfect time in history was after modern inventions started being made, but before electricity was widely available, so that you could be off the grid and still have a decent life.

 

I have learned a lot of those skills over the years--knitting, weaving, cooking, baking bread, organic vegetable gardening--and although I enjoy them, I am really glad that I don't NEED to do them to get by.

 

I think that having survival-type skills is a good thing, and being able to do something 'old-timey' in an artistic way is a great thing. I encourage you to take your DD to some history museums and antique shows so that she can get to know the tools that were used in those days, and also to let her try some things like weaving, spinning, growing an herb garden, or maybe candle making. And definately cooking!

[Rosie_0801]

There are re-enactment groups from all sorts of different periods for this reason. We can have the romance of it all, and still go home to our flushing toilets! The amount of threads on here about home made Christmas presents show how useful handicrafts can be.

:)

Rosie

Edited December 11, 2008 by Rosie_0801

[JFSinIL]

When I was about that age, I was sad not to live in Middle Earth.

 

She has read these books as a child - as an Adult, I FEEL for Caroline being alone on the prairie with young children and a hubby. No female friends or family close by - no internet to connect with others ;) ("Hey - my hubby appears to be lost in a snowstorm and I am home alone with three small kids - what will happen to us?" or "Hey - I am having a baby at home alone with just my hubby and three small kids in our one-room home - any midwife nearby" or "Hey - I am going to go stark bonkers if I do not get some adult conversation while I am in the house with three (or four) small children all day!")

[Jeannie in NJ]

we did the unit study Prairie Primer when my dc were younger and for about a year or so they played Little House every day. My dd is 3 years older than ds and is bossy so she decided which characters they would be. My son got awfully tired of being Mary or Carrie. Ever once in a while he got to be Pa. He was very happy when they started watching the tv series and he could be Albert.

 

Anyway, this is about when my dd got interested in baking from scratch and now at age 14, bakes everything from scratch and wants to be a pastry chef.

[melissel]

I remember feeling this way myself often as a child. I LOVED L.M. Montgomery's books as a young teen and spent lots of time acting out scenes, etc., from the Anne stories. I would actually cry when I finished reading them. I think it is a combination of feeling out of place in the current century and the sense of sadness over being through with something you so thoroughly enjoyed.

 

Oh, I was going to post the very same thing! I still read the whole series at least once a year, particularly when things are crazy here and I'm yearning for a simpler time. What I wouldn't give for a Susan Baker these days :lol:

 

Dorothy, I think you handled that beautifully. My DD6 was crying about something similar not long ago, and I'm reasonably sure the issue will crop up again for us :D I'll have to bookmark this post and return to it!

[Tammyla]

The Prairie Primer would have been a fun study for her. She sounds sweet.

My dd, just didn't fall in love with the Little House books like I had way back when. My best friend owned the entire set, and I remember looking at it thinking she was so lucky.:D

[CalicoKat]

that was me too.

 

I changed my mind though after I got reaallyyy sick once and realized (on my own) that back then I would have died because there wasn't the medical stuff I needed then.

 

It was a perpective maker. I still enjoy that time period. But I'm glad to be a land poor farm girl.

[Jenny in Atl]

I think maybe she is a bit of a romantic. The fact is, a lot of the lesser things are left out of such books, imho. Things like trekking to outhouses in the dead of winter, the fear and reality of starvation, sickness, infant mortality, things we take for granted. I really thought about those things once I became a mother to a boy who needed corrective heart surgery and a feeding tube. It really hit home that had I lived in those times, like I always wanted to as a kid, my son would be dead. Thanks to living now, he is alive and healthy, but not long ago (or maybe longer than I think!:glare:) I was just like her. I still am a bit. Okay, maybe a lot. I so wanted to be on that PBS Frontier House show. I would encourage her to try her hand at sewing, cooking, baking whatever pioneer thing sparks her interest. But, perhaps you could gently remind her of the wonderful things this life has to offer, too.

 

:iagree:

 

Many kids bks (including LHP) wax over how many became "pioneers" off the murder and segregation of those who lived on the land before them, the Native Americans. How long most lived, the rampant disease, women with little to no rights or choices in their life, etc. I think when she learns the whole history and not the "Disneyfied" version, it may seem a bit less romantic.

 

There is nothing wrong with wanting to learn how to live off the land, and make things by hand, but it's another to long for a time in history w/o knowing the good, the bad, and the truly ugly.

[Linda in Oregon]

Is she a romantic? Do other girls get worked up like this? What do you do with a child who longs for (feels a part of) the past?

 

Hi Dorothy -

 

Speaking for my daughter, yes, other girls get worked up like this. My daughter - now almost 11 - spent a few years dressing only in prairie dresses, reading absolutely everything pioneer (as well as listening to the Little House books on CD - over and over again - I highly recommend them, in addition to reading the books). She took it upon herself to make butter, sew with needle and thread, begged to do "prairie school" with a slate, using the original McGuffey Readers and other books, begged to live like a pioneer (have days/weeks where we went without electricity/modern conveniences, washing and drying clothes outdoors), got really into fiddle music - I bought her cds and songbooks from here: http://www.pasfiddle.com/

 

She still wants to be a modern day pioneer. We watched documentaries on Tasha Tudor - somewhat on a modern pioneer. My daughter want's to keep chickens (for eggs) and grow all her own food. She wants to be a farmer/fiddle player when she's older and out of the house.

 

I love seeing this passion in her. The Little House books had such an impact on her - something that will stay with her forever. My daughter still longs for a different way of life - and she'll be the first to admit that some of the "newfangled conveniences" of today have led to the breakdown of society and she wants no part in them!

[Ohio12]

I was like that at that age. (maybe still a little) I would really feel devastated when I thought about a disappointment like that. I wonder if some of it was hormonal. It would have helped if my mom had taken me a little more seriously. Not to overindulge, but to let her talk about it and feel sad. Maybe find her another series to read too.