Sometimes a certain librarian at a certain library makes me
want to slap her in the face. Is that bad? Maybe. I want to go on record as
saying that aside from this librarian and my storytime encounters, I absolutely
love our library and its proximity to us. I even like the quirkiness of some of its patrons that comes as a result of the library being next to a homeless shelter.
The first time I had a run-in with this woman was when the
boys were 13 months old. How do I remember that age? Oh, that’s because storytime at the library requires babies to be 13 months old before they can come to
the infant-2 years storytime. They also have ONLINE REGISTRATION for storytime? What the f$&%? I know. So fascist. I touched on the story and how my library visits have changed here, but
here’s the storytime incident: I pushed them in their double umbrella stroller to the room where storytime was held. At the door I was told I could not take the stroller
in. Okay. I wonder how I will contain my
crawlers? I asked if she could make an exception since I had two. No. Okay, well, I’ll try. All the parents were
perfectly arranged in a half circle, sitting cross-legged with their one child
on their laps, with the exception of a dad whose son was standing over in the
corner, not in anyone’s way, just walking around quietly. Note: there was
plenty of room for my stroller to be over in the corner by the boy walking
around.
Putting both boys on my lap lasted about all of 30 seconds
before one started sprint-crawling across the room. Yes, I got a glare from
said librarian. I bet you didn’t know fascists wear duck puppets; I’m here to
tell you that they do. Soon the fascist spoke to the father in the corner with
his kid. “It would be best if everyone was sitting over here.” Seriously. After
some more glares and awkward, disciplinary pauses from her, I decided to take the
boys out and put them in the stroller. So I did. Then I put the stroller in the
doorway so we weren’t in the room but the boys could see the story. By the way,
they were interested in listening and watching once they were contained. “It
would be best if there were no strollers,” the fascists passively-aggressively
told me in front of everyone. I blurted something along the lines of, “Are you
kidding me?” and I took the stroller and left. I had every intention of writing
a letter to the library over this behavior, but I never got around to it. A
good thing that came from it was that I met my friend Susan at the playground a
few weeks after the incident. The icebreaker: “Aren’t you the one who was
kicked out of storytime? That was ridiculous.” We’ve been friends ever since.
Over a year later I decided to give it another shot. We went
with some friends. For some reason Calvin freaked out when we got to the
library and didn’t want to go to storytime. Perhaps he remembered the fascist
dictator that ruled last time. But, stories hadn’t started yet so I
tried to calm him down by the door. He let me take him in and was beginning to
settle down. Let me reiterate, stories had not started and the librarian was
not even trying to start reading when she looked at me and said gruffly, “He
can’t stay in here like that.” I left with both boys.
We went to the kids’ room in the library and read books
ourselves. Interestingly, one by one, other moms came out of storytime and
into the children’s section after, I can only assume, being
passively-aggressively kicked out. Needless to say, we have not tried another library
storytime and have no plans to. However, we do go to the library often to get
books and read books and to look at the mural on the wall with the lion that
got his foot hurt and the mouse that is helping take the thorn out. The boys
are obsessed with that part of the mural, and the Hansel and Gretel candy house.
The other day my friend the fascist was the librarian in the
children’s section and I asked her where the educational Dr. Seuss books are
located. “Hmm. What do you mean?” Really?
I explained to her that the series is from the Cat in the Hat PBS cartoon and
they’re on different subjects like space and desserts. Blank look. “I don’t
know. Maybe they would be over here in content sorted books…or beginning
reading?” I’d like to add that any mom I’ve mentioned these books to knows
about this series, and some own them. She then found the series on the computer,
with much mumbling, and put them on hold for me. Next I asked her about books
about cars or transportation in general that she might recommend for kids my kids’
age. “Hmm, none come to mind…” What. Isn’t
every boy (besides mine) obsessed with cars and trucks? And don’t children’s
book authors know that and write about them? Don’t librarians know a lot about
books? I was trying to get my boys psyched up to see the transportation exhibit
at the American History Museum. Fortunately, another librarian was beginning
her shift at that time and had some great suggestions for me. How delightfully
and refreshingly librarian of her.
I’m a little annoyed at myself for dedicating even this much
of my time to writing about that librarian, and I want to love our local children’s librarian, as a concept. Anyone know
a good children’s librarian looking to relocate?
Our librarian would probably not approve of sleeping with books. Too bad. |
Nope, you just need to vent about her, or complain to her boss like I did. That was one of my prouder moments. After my second encounter with her, something had to be done. Sad that every local mom knows exactly who she is.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think I need some of your gumption so I can do things like talk to bosses. Maybe it will rub off on me.
ReplyDeleteOh, I would have been so upset! How unfortunate! You'd think a librarian working in the children's section might actually enjoy children and have reasonable expectations for them. Glad your boys are still able to take pleasure in getting books though! =)
ReplyDelete~Elizabeth at MommonSense.com
(Found your site via "the mom blogs")