Love You Forever

You won’t normally find this in a list of books about feelings. It’s not about emotions, but it will give you all the feels! I had to include it because now that my son is older and can grasp the meaning of this book (he’s 6 years old), it has helped us avert some major meltdowns. When my son is acting up and I’m at my wit's end, I take deep breaths and whisper some lines from the book: “I love you forever, I’ll like you for always. As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.” The first time… show more.

Each time I read this book to my children I was confronted with how fleeting childhood is. After a long day alone with gumpy kids I needed this reminder. When it all said and done childhood is blimp in a long life. This book made me a better mother because it put things into perspective. I could get a birdseye view of childhood rather than difficult details that I was always navigating. I highly recommend this book! 

This story shows a mother’s unconditional love for her child, no matter how old they become. It’s the kind of love that is felt, appreciated, and reciprocated. The son in the story experiences this eternal love and gives it back to his mother when she reaches old age, up to and including at the time of her death. As a grown man, we see that he has felt and absorbed his mother’s message of love all along. The son then showers that same unconditional love, hope, and care to his young daughter. This book is almost pure hope; hope for… show more.

This book oozes the love between a mother and child over time better than anything I’ve ever read. Even though the mother’s son can be exasperating, she always cradles him in her arms at the end of each day and sings a short lullaby about how she will always love him. When her son finally leaves home she sometimes sneaks into his bedroom to sing the lullaby. Eventually, she grows old and sick and the boy, now a man, cradles his mother and sings the same lullaby, somewhat altered, vowing to always love her.

When I first picked it up,… show more.