Five Minutes' Peace - Jill Murphy

I think this book has a really important message which, as a Mum of three children, I could really relate to – getting a bit of 'time out' from the kids. Mrs Large enters the kitchen to find her children having breakfast and it isn't a pleasant sight. Instead of demanding they tidy up she makes up a tray of tea and cake for herself and heads to the bathroom to relax in the bath. However in no time at all her children find her and want to share special things with her. Before you know it all three children are in the bath. So what is a mother elephant to do, but leave her children to play and head downstairs where she gets a few minutes peace.

It is so important as parents to make sure that we have time for ourselves and to top up energy reserves. When our kids are little long moments like are few and far between so finding a few minutes in the day may be all we get, but sometimes is all we need to retain our sanity. Mrs Large does very well listening to her children share special achievements we we as adults know all she wants to do is soak in the tub. I admire her! The illustrations are bright and colourful with lots of detail. I found it an empowering story, but my 4 year old did not. His first comment was “I don't like that story.” Daniels interpretation of the story was that the Mummy elephant didn't like her children as she didn't want to be with them. And you always want to be with the ones you love. He wasn't able to understand that you might not want to be with someone even if you love them.   He would like to be surrounded by everyone he loves all the time.

On the upside it did give rise to a great conversation about how sometimes even though Mummies and Daddies love their children they need to have some time together. And sometimes they want to have some time to relax by themselves. He still doesn't really understand this and I think he thinks that adults are strange.

Definitely an example of how adults and children view books differently. Anyway, I am off to have a bath and hopefully the kids don't notice :)
7/10