I'll Love You Forever - the Book

The first time I read it, I thought it was a little creepy that the mom sneaks into his house as a grown man. yeah... but after I read it a few times, and sang the "chorus" ("I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living..) to my son, I liked it a lot more. My son loved that book. He liked me singing the chorus to him.
He's 14 now... I'd bet he has fond memories of that book. He is the sentimental type.

Until I glued together the pages where the mother drove to her grown son's home, climbed a ladder, entered his bedroom and rocked him, yeah, it was creepy. After those pages were gone we were left with a very sweet story ;-)

I find it beyond creepy. I really don't understand how people read it and think it's sweet...? The illustration in the book where she has crawled through her ADULT son's window, and is cradling him like a baby? What the...WHAT???

I highly suspect if it was a father crawling through his daughter's window...people would freak out.

Sorry I LOVED the book, sure aspects are a little off but what I get out of the story is just how strong a mothers love and bond is.

At the end it's the son who says "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, my Mommy you'll be." at that point the story comes full circle. Isn't that what life is really about?

THANK YOU!!!! Do you know how many people I have pissed off by not liking this book? Or how many baby showers I've had to sit through while someone does a dramatic, tearful reading of the book while I try not to have a stroke or pee my pants from trying not to laugh? Seriously, if you are ever at a baby shower and someone reads the book aloud and brings a box of tissues with up to the podium with them, excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, because if you are anything like me, explosive, highly inappropriate laughter is expected to ensue.

I always say that if my MIL creeped in our window to hold our son, I would hit her with a bat. :) A mother son bond is great, but please use the front door during daylight hours. Hahahaha!

You made my day! No offense to the others who love the book. Keep on loving it! :)

Oops! Just read what I wrote....... I mean if my MIL creeped in our window to hold HER son. LOL!

This book has me in tears every time I read it. I think too many people are getting hung up on the creeping in the window bit and missing the bigger picture. This mother loves her son. And the son, loves his mother. The passage of life is brief, and if your lucky, love-filled but it always ends in death. It's bittersweet. I'm glad I read it the one time I did, but once was enough. Just like the movie Braveheart. Watched it once. Don't need to watch it again. Good movie but too heart-wrenching to watch again.

Every time I read the book I think of my own mother and how one day she'll be too frail to function then disappear out of my life like so much dandelion fluff. Then I think of my daughter and how she will see me decline and then die the same way and it just sets me off again. Oh cruel nature, I shake my fist at thee and will not go gentle into that good night!

Books that are a reminder of the mortality of my loved ones tend to make me a bit misty-eyed.

Wow...I never looked at it through the creep factor lens. To me it is a book written for children(not for the parent) and it reassures the child that mom will always love them.

As a child, they are "creeped" out thinking they will have to leave the nest and live on their own. This is a book to reassure the child of a mom's forever love. It make sense in the child's head because they don't ever want to leave.

Haven't you ever had your child say at a young age, "When I grow up and get married and have kids we are going to live here in my room and share the bunk bed." Then they get a little older and say they will live next door. My teenager now says he will live across town.

It is a natural progression into independence. The book helps make the child feel secure in their little understanding of the big,wide world that someday won't have you in it constantly.

I love and smooch on all of my kids 6 on up to 13.I am not looking forward to the day when they are all out of the nest...but I have hobbies and interests to help with the transition. And...if my husband sees me tying our extended ladder to the rooftop then it is time for a padded room.

Good luck and best wishes!!
PS....I think I will dust off the book and read it to them tonight..for good time's sake and see if it creeps me out now.

I had to laugh because I think if I thought about the book literally (from your point of view) I would definitely find it totally creepy. I can understand what you mean. I mean having a mom climb a ladder and sneak into her son's house to hold him and sing him a song could be a bit Oedipal. My opinion is that this book was written in an allegorical style to symbolize enduring love and various phases of life. I think if you view the book that way it is quite lovely.

I don't find it creepy at all. My aunt gave it to me when I was pregnant with my son. I had never heard of it before, but she said it was a tradition in her family. I didn't get around to reading it for about a year (long after my son was born), but when I did it made me cry. I thought it was so sweet. And when we went to get our family portraits made and there was one that they titled "Love" for our son, it actually had that rhyme on it.

I hear ya! My principal/boss got it for me on Mother's Day when I was pregnant with my son. I had read it before and was less than sincere with my thank you...

That being said, my son (now 7) found it on his bookshelf few years back, read it to himself, and loved it! He often reads it and loves for me to read it to him.

As an adult who sees the need for a boundary between adults and their parents, the crawling in at night is very strange... but as a little kid, the idea that you never get too big for your mom to love you is probably comforting... and at least non-creepy :)

The book is sweet - especially the "love you forever" chorus - but the mom's a bit of a stalker ; )

Yeah! When I pray for mothers raising wonderful boys for my girls to marry one day...that was definitely not the type. Way too much Mama love. lol

Go the f* to sleep is much better (maybe not lol)

i can see how people would think that, but it makes me sad.
what a wacky world it is when tenderness is so universally regarded with suspicion.
:( khairete
S.

No, I don't find it creepy at all! It's one of our favorites. I don't read it often because it makes me bawl my eyes out but it is a wonderful story.

We are huge Robert Munsch fans here. My kids have everything he has written, and we go to see his books preformed in live theatre every year. I have never thought of it as creepy. I absolutely love it, but I have never been able to read it to my children because I start to cry. The same with Shel Silversteins' The Giving Tree. I also like The Runaway Bunny, Guess How Much I Love You and The Velveteen Rabbit. I do like a story that makes me cry, just as I enjoy a movie that makes me cry.
ETA: I think the mother drives across town and climbs a ladder to rock her grown son is meant to be absurd, because children find humour in the absurd. If you read any of Munsch's work you will find it is all meant to be silly/absurd, and that children really love that part of it along with the repetition. My personal favourite is Good Families Don't.

I didn't think it was creepy.. I considered it a story about the cycle of life... I thought it was sweet how the boy was raised with so much love and in turn, loved his mom dearly and then passed that love unto his newborn.
I love the book...

I love that book, but I do see your point. I don't know why the author didn't just make it a three-generational household, though. That would have been more realistic than having her drive across town. I guess I never took it literally. I saw it as a figurative expression of how a mother's love continues on into adulthood.

Books that really bug me:
The Rainbow Fish book http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rainbow-fish-marcus-pfist...
The Runaway Bunny book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Runaway_Bunny
Guess How Much I Love You http://www.amazon.com/Guess-How-Much-Love-You/dp/0763603317

Ah, yes, the Robert Munsch book...

You know, I also originally found the book creepy, but later learned... if you read the other Munsch books, they are superbly, supremely funny. This one is really out of context for this particular author; I think what throws us is the illustration style. Most of his other books have a more cartoony,'wacky' style to them because they are really, really silly. Think about it-- the mom doing all that stalking, for kids, it is just really SILLY. :) I believe that this book was supposed to be silly, but the publishers went with a more subdued, tender illustration style which is not in keeping with the goofiness of the story.

So that's how I view the book now when we read it-- goofy and sweet, but incorrectly illustrated!

Yup, totally creepy. The sentiment is sweet but she drives across town, breaks into her adult son's house, crawls across the floor, peaks up over his bedside and then rocks him? That's the stuff of nightmares! :) She's lucky he didn't club her with a bat before he realized who she was!

That said, the silly book always makes me cry, despite the creepiness.

ETA - I just thought of another book I really didn't like when my kids were young. It's a book called "No David". Check out the illustrations. David's TEETH are horrible!! It really creeped me out.
http://www.amazon.com/No-David-Shannon/dp/0590930028

Original:
Nope, not just you. 18 years or so later, and I STILL remember that I didn't like the book! A lady I worked with gave it to me, and I trashed it rather than read it to my child.

Glad to know that I'M not the only one who found it creepy!!

Dawn

Yeah, creepy, but I always cry anyway. :)

Maybe I get it because I'm old enough to start creeping into my adult kids' bedrooms...

Isn't it funny what different perspectives we all have? I never thought of this book as creepy until reading this -- and we first started reading it, oh, about 17 or 18 years ago or so! My daughters and I still have a sentimental soft spot for this book. And i'm looking forward to the day I can buy it for them to read to their children!

creepy but sweet. does she really need to break in to her adult son's home with ladder to tell him she loves him?! i love the book....makes me cry...and my two boys (5yrs and 7yrs) love it too. i tell them "yes, i will come into your house with a ladder one day...just FYI"

woohoo Wednesday!

I think it's sweet. My daughter is twenty-two and still has the copy I bought for her when she was little.

I think it's really sweet, though when my mom used to read it to me, and now when I read it to little ones, the line gets changed from "as long as I am living" to "for always and forever" because that bond won't end at death.

Updated

I think it's really sweet, though when my mom used to read it to me, and now when I read it to little ones, the line gets changed from "as long as I am living" to "for always and forever" because that bond won't end at death.

I've always hated this book and could never understand why people like it so much. I think the little song she sings is sweet, but the rest of it is weird weird weird. Never mind the part where she drives across town with a ladder strapped to the top of her car and climbs through the window when he's a grown man. It was already pushing my creeped out buttons when the mom sneaks into the kid's room on all fours when he is nine and then when he's a teenager. And then at the end I guess she becomes so old and weak that he sings the song to her instead, and then what? Does she die?? Meanwhile, the son goes home and starts the same cycle of obsessive, smothering parenting by singing the song to his baby daughter. Great.

Even in the "cute" parts of it, the boy is so ill-behaved, I didn't want my kids to get any ideas. The famous cover shows the child as a toddler having made a terrible mess of the bathroom, with toilet paper strewn all over the place, toothpaste squirted out of the tube, and soap coming out of the bottle. Ugh, no thanks.

So, no, it's not just you. :)

ETA: I agree with others who also hate "Runaway Bunny" and "The Giving Tree."

A friend of mine had a daughter go off to college and her daughter was date raped. Of course with their religious beliefs the girl never even considered not giving the baby up for adoption.

When she eventually married and had her first child with her husband she had a really hard time because she missed her other baby so very much.

This book had been her favorite growing up. Her mom would read it to her every night. It was their thing.

So when we went to her baby shower her mom gave her a copy of this book. She read it out loud and there wasn't a dry eye in the building. Each person there knew the torment she went through and how she had her first little baby and then the adoption counselor took the baby right away. She was in tears through the whole book.

She knew her little child that she had now was the most precious gift in the world and she said she was so blessed to finally get to hold her baby. I assumed that meant that she hadn't even been allowed to hold the first baby at all

The book made her see how the generations were connected and how it all comes back to you in the end.

Is that the one where she creeps into his house in the night when he's an adult? Then YES, I do. My SS got it from his mom when he was little and after several moves, it's ended up in our home. I'm glad SD keeps it with her because I'm not inclined to read it to DD - not because of who it came from but because of the story.

Guess How Much I Love You is much better.

That is a weird one. My dh also hates the book The Giving Tree, and thinks its super creepy. There is also one with two rabbits that has a similar title involving love, there is a part where the mom says if you were a boat, I would be the wind and I would blow you. Maybe I just have a dirty mind, but talking about blowing people cracks me up.

One I actually like is You are my I Love You. And we love all the Llama Llama books, my favorite is Llama Llama, Mad at Momma.

Nope, it's not just you...I got it as a baby shower gift and started reading through it, and at first thought, oh how sweet...and then got to where she climbs up a ladder to crawl into the bedroom of her adult son and rock him and went. "Woah!" I think I eventually ended up "re-gifting" it! Funny thing is, a girl I know who I am friends with on FB and who is a new mom posted something recently about what a great book it is and how it always makes her cry and all her friends were saying the same thing! I almost (but didn't) post something about how creepy I thought it was!

No, I've never considered it creepy at all, just very sweet with a great message. I have a hard time reading it to my son without getting choked up.

I think the part that creeped you out was meant to be funny. At least, I read it in a funny way to my kids, and they DO laugh! It gets the point that no matter how big they think they are, they're ALSO my babies, but in a kind of silly goofy way instead of overly sweet and sappy. My 6 year laughs that I'm the huggy monster and that they'd better watch out! I like it because even when they really annoy the heck out of me, or mouth off, or we've had a terrible day (my youngest is in his full blown 3s), when they are sleeping, they are just lovely little angels and I can't be even slightly aggravated then.

Yes, creepy. The first time I read a copy I was about 11 but it struck me as odd even then. I can remember staring at the illustrations in creeped out discomfort, especially the mother's rocking of her adult child. On a less creepy note I find the Dr.Seuss book which has Mr.and Mrs. Black go away together but then has Mr. Black return with Mr. Brown to be an utter riot. I get the giggles every time. Many kids' books are funny when the adult versus the child perspective is considered.

We have that book. My son loves it and we read it a lot, but I definitely agree...a bit creepy for sure. Who drives across town and crawls into their grown son's window and picks him up and rocks him "back and fourth back and fourth" haha. I do like the book though. :)

lol yeah when the son is a grown man and she creeps into his room .. you know he has a wife because he has a baby in the end. i too find it slightly odd...for the most part its super sweet though.

I don't like any children's book that attempts to provoke any emotion other than hilarity, happiness, or joy, really. I don't like that book, I don't like The Giving Tree, and although I'm a die hard Berenstain Bear fan, I think they missed the boat on the one where Sister's fish dies. Blah. No thanks.

It's not that I think it's creepy...I get what the author is going for...I just don't care for books like that. I also don't like inspirational books for myself. Which leads me to my own question, soon to follow. :)

Is this the one where the mother takes care of her son and then comes to his place and cares for him...and then he cares for her until she dies? I'm not sure why people find it "creepy", but I don't like that she has to die in the end. It's on the shelf. I've never read it to him and don't feel any ties to the book. He's 2. Maybe that will change.

I agree.....eww...wierd. Nicole P makes a valid point of it being so deep.....but then if it's that deep and you need to think and read into it, then perhaps it should not be a childrens book. Right? What are our kids gonna get from that? Grandma sneaks up the ladder in a window and that's ok and normal...to rock daddy and for daddy to rock her.....yeah ok. Who does that??I guiess it should be read and fully explained as it is read, so that all that deep meaning isn't lost or misinterpreted

Too funny! I thought the same thing as I was reading it. We got as a gift but haven't read it in a while. I get the premise but it does come across creepy.

I thought it was creepy too! My sister in law gave it to my son. She told me she loved it when her kids were small. I told my husband it was soooo creepy!