Little House

I've been reading DQ Little House in the Big Woods, one chapter each night before bed. This is the first in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, a book I adored as a child, and one that I got based on DQ's newfound interest in "the oldie days." She LOVES it, but I have to admit it raises a whole slew of questions that have involved very long, drawn-out discussions.

The gun discussion. Why does Pa have a gun and talk about it all the time, yet Mommy and Daddy don't have a gun and don't want us to play with guns? I answered this by comparing Pa's circumstances to our own. There are no bears and panthers out our door. So we don't need a gun. She bought that.

The spanking discussion. Why does Pa spank Laura when she does something wrong? Well, that's how some people punish kids, more commonly in the oldie days. But Mommy and Daddy don't do that.

The yellow curls/brown curls discussion. Why does everyone love Mary more? Oy! I had no recollection of how much the book went into this. I remember it somewhat from the TV series, but seriously, at age 5? Geez. I totally avoided this one, rather than get into beauty image (whiteness or the the like) conversation. "Some people like yellow hair and some people like brown hair. And some people like both." Whew!

The Sunday chapter. Why couldn't they do anything fun on Sunday? Well, that was a day to think about God (yeah, another can of worms there) and so some people in the oldie days didn't think you should do fun things on Sundays.

The "where does meat come from?" conversation. Luckily, we've already paved the way for this. But still, it was a bit of a startle to her to make the jump from pig running around the yard to bacon in the smokehouse. (Although, hey, cool balloon from the pig's bladder. 'Member that?) She seemed to take it well. She was most worried about whether they would eat the horses. No, I told her, they need the horses to drive the wagon.

I went ahead and ordered a copy of the boxed set for her, since she liked the first one so much. (As for the TV show and the constant threat of typhus/anthrax/scarlet fever that it brought up, we'll wait awhile.)