The Walk of Shame

I cringe every time I have to walk up to the circulation desk at our local library with a ripped book.  Lil' C has about a dozen offenses in her little life, two yesterday!  Sometimes the rips are not that bad and other times they are down right awful.  With each offense, even the minor ones, the librarian hems and haws about what to do and whether or not it can be fixed.  I hold my breath and wait for her decision.  Sometimes she says, "It looks like we may be able to fix this one."  Other times it is, "That will be $10.90 for the book and $3.50 for the processing fee."  No matter what the outcome she then says, "Please don't let the baby near the books!".  I always promise that we won't, tell her we have them on the top shelf in a special basket and walk away in a sweat.

Our family owns hundreds and hundreds of books and Lil C has never ripped a one....I don't know what it is about library books.  We really do have them in a special basket on a top shelf but sometimes we forget to put them back and will find her looking at it.  Most of the time she is fine with the books but all it takes is one impulse and BAM.  The child has even ripped a library board book!!  It wasn't even a good book and now we own it.

I ripped one book in my day, The Muppet Movie Book.  I was much older than Lil' C and I remember how painful it was to go to the librarian and admit my mistake.  I was forced to pay for the book (man it was EXPENSIVE) and I believe I had to pay for it myself (right mom??).  That experience taught me to treasure books from the library.  So how does one teach an 18 month old to respect books????  My guess is you don't and so before Lil' C's debt grows too much bigger, we are going to take a break from the library.  I feel so badly for Z about this decision but I will make it up to him somehow. 

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!