So, this afternoon was story time at our community library. As any longtime reader of this blog knows, I seem to perpetually complain about the children's librarian. Today is no exception. I might have mentioned a week or two ago that the librarian has suddenly decided that Ella needs to talk and answer questions asked of her. Ella isn't signed up for story time, but she likes to do just what the other kids do, so she lines up for the sticker each child gets at the start, occasionally sits for a while during the reading time, usually watches the short movie, and participates in the craft time. Today, when the librarian handed Ella her sticker, she asked Ella what color it was and Cole, as the helpful older brother who knows what Ella can or will say, replied, "yellow!" "Cole," the librarian replied. "You'll need to stop speaking for Ella. She's old enough to speak for herself."

Later, when they sat down to read stories and the librarian asked each child what his or her favorite animal was, Ella didn't say anything. So Cole jumped in to say something, and the librarian held up her hand to him and said, "Cole! Don't speak for Ella!" Cole went on to try to explain that Ella was just a toddler and didn't say many things yet. "Ella's older than a toddler," was the librarian's reply. Umm, last time I checked, a two-year-old is still considered a toddler. Cole kept trying to explain why Ella wouldn't answer the question and the librarian kept interrupting him so he wouldn't speak for Ella. I interjected, "Cole, Ella does say some things, doesn't she? She'll speak when she wants to, won't she?" That, I thought, was a much more diplomatic answer than "Ella is not a trained dog and doesn't speak just because she's told to speak." After I said that, the librarian said, "Yes, that's right" in a way that made it seem as if my statement was backing hers up.

So why do I continue to take the kids to story time when things like this happen? Well, I suppose it's because they ask me to and genuinely seem to enjoy it. Cole is the only one signed up for story time since he's the only one in the right age range, so he's the one asking to go. And, living in the metropolis that we do, there aren't any other options. We can't go to the Barnes & Noble for their story time or to other community centers or programs. I suppose I could see what area library programs are like, although that may not turn out to be any better.

While I really dislike a lot of the attitude that this children's librarian brings to the program (definitely a preparing for school sort of thing), I don't think it's harming Cole to go to it. When I talked to him today about the incident (Yeah, we know Ella is a toddler and that she's not going to say something just because she's told to and I don't know why Mrs. H. thinks she's supposed to do that), Cole always has attitude that Mrs. H. is pretty much a strange adult who doesn't get how we do things.

I think there are maybe two more weeks for this session, so maybe we just finish up the session and then I don't bring up story time or registering for the last session of the school year? Or I make sure to plan something fun and cool for next Thursday so Cole would rather do that than story time? I don't know. Any thoughts?