Emotional baggage

I read Rosemary a bedtime story tonight. It was a library book that she’d picked out herself. She tends to choose a bunch of books from the readers section – so aimed at slightly older children to read themselves. I hadn’t read it before and nor had Chris – or Rosemary.

I was reading through it fine. It seemed like a fairly ordinary story, about a school and one boy in particular. But suddenly, I got to a part of the story and burst into tears. I had to keep reading, but my voice was all wobbly and waving my hands to try to wave away the tears. No-one died. There were no starving children. There was just a little boy bringing his great-grandmother in to school as part of a project – to bring something old and precious in.

I cry uncontrollably at weird things. Applause is one of the worst. I was always crying when watching The West Wing, because, well, people frequently applaud the President – especially when he’s as charismatic and eloquent as Jed Bartlett. People doing something good or nice en masse is another one that gets me. I was in almost constant tears when I went on the march to save Stroud Maternity (though I was pregnant at the time, so had an excuse for excessive lacrimosity). And anything to do with matriarchs, especially when people show love and respect for grandmothers and great-grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers (my Gran is one of those, amazingly).

Rosemary was pretty much unfazed by this. She glanced at me a couple of times, but was really engrossed by the story, so was happy as long as I kept reading. She could obviously tell that I wasn’t really upset as, the few times I have been with her, she’s immediately given me a big cuddle and kiss.

So, have you ever been overcome by tears when reading a bedtime story? Is there anything that particularly makes you cry? Do you mind crying in front of your children?