Roald Dahl is a genius! But you already know that. Mr Dahl achieves in his books what an exasperated mommy cannot achieve through years of telling, explaining, nagging, reinforcing.
At SF+30 (yay!), shout-free for thirty days that is, I can’t help but feel that I’m nowhere near as effective with my 2 rambunctious boys than issuing commands and threats at say 80 or so decibels, generally accompanied by rapid breathing, menacing wagging index finger, flaring nostrils, knitted brows and bloodshot eyes (as bloodshot as can be mustered). An alpha mom will have no problem at all perfecting this posture, but all other moms beta to omega will get the hang of it after a few times. It’s a natural mommy ability.
Alas, I’ve traded bellows for cuddles.
So, if you want to impart lessons in life to kids fed on a regular diet of visceral action from Japanese anime action heroes and superheroes of various ilks and sizes, you need a compelling story teller. And there are few finer than Mr Dahl.
As I read aloud the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to my boys at bedtime, I feel or at least I hope that they are learning a few of these important life lessons:
Lesson 1: do things out of love
Whether it’s Mrs Bucket’s sacrifice of that morning slice of bread, or Grandpa Joe’s last worldly possession of one silver sixpence, cabbage soup, nibbles of chocolate, they each sacrifice or share whatever they have. They do it out of love with no expectations whatsoever except the hope that the other is the better for it.
Lesson 2: brat is bad
Nothing good can come out of being greedy, wilful, spoilt brats. Parents who give in to everything their kids want are doing their kids a great disservice. Every child should know this: Too much chocolate is hazardous, don’t eat anything you’re told not to eat, too much tv is bad for you and don’t disturb a squirrel if you’re a bad nut (or the lesson here is, you can’t have everything).
Lesson 3: when you are starving even thin cabbage soup is good
When you are poor and starving, having bread and margarine for breakfast, boiled potatoes and cabbage for lunch and cabbage soup for dinner is enough. And having double helpings of same on Sundays can be a real treat.
Lesson 4: you need to earn money to pay for things
Poor Mr Bucket earns a pittance screwing caps on tubes of toothpaste until the factory went bust. He gets a job shoveling snow in the bitter cold only to afford a quarter of what they need to feed 7 people. It’s tough to earn enough, if potatoes are all you can afford, then potatoes are all you can have.
Lesson 5: to be successful in business, you need to create great products
Willy Wonka’s success is built upon a foundation of deliciously marvellous chocolate products, some two hundred types of them, and all sorts of new interesting inventions – ice cream that stays cold for hours without refrigeration, marshmallows that taste like violets, caramels that change colour every 10 seconds, light feathery sweets that melt away deliciously in your mouth, chewing gum that never loses its taste and so on and so forth. (ok, that’s really a lesson for me, I’d better get cracking on them cakes!)
Lesson 6: take time to look and observe
You never know what you can find when you look. A penny can buy a kingdom of chocolates in the right place, at the right time, with the right attitude.
Lesson 7: everybody loves chocolates
That’s self explanatory. Everybody loves chocolates. From the ninety six and a half year old Grandpa Joe to the Oompa-Loompas. There is no finer food known to man. Amen.
Happy reading, folks!
momsterthoughts 