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It is unfortunate, but true, that not a lot of parents encourage their kids to read children’s poems. Before we start a discussion that concludes I am wrong, please let me explain what I am talking about. It is not that parents will not let their children read poems for kids at all. In fact, if it is required reading in school, then they will be more than happy to have their child learn it. But what I’m saying is, parents are more likely to push their offspring to read children stories than they are with poems.

There is an unconscious belief that children stories provide a lot of values and morals to kids. While that is in fact true, the same can be said of poetry too. You see, from an early age, parents want their children to pick up all those skills that will help them in their future life. Thus, stories are considered good because they teach us values. They help us to understand right from wrong and also help kids to become good at reading. So, as parents, we are constantly buying new kids stories for our children. Our endeavor is to try and expose them to different types of writing so that they can have a wholesome approach to reading.

But unfortunately, we do not think in a similar manner when it comes to children’s poems. Would it be unfair if I said that most parents believe that poems for kids are only for fun and not much else? Well, I believe it to be a fair statement. Yes, we do want our children to have fun and enjoy the learning process as well. But if your child was only attracted to poems and did not want to read children stories, would you be thrilled about such a situation? Don’t think so, right?

Have you ever stopped to consider why we have such an attitude? After all, poems for kids are also a great resource and kids ought to read them. Well, such an attitude comes from the belief that poetry is not a very accessible form of art and can also be a bit obscure. Making a living as a poet too can be quite challenging. The term ‘struggling artist’ is so firmly embedded in our minds that we do not want to encourage our kids to become artists in any field.

Yes, drawing as a pass time, or singing as a hobby, or even writing poetry for fun is all good. But when it comes to making a career choice, we all would prefer our kids to do something that we believe is more concrete and will take them further in life. But since that is not the case in the modern world, where artists are greatly appreciated, it would be great if we could encourage our kids to read children’s poems.