Reading is one of life's greatest pleasures. Reading with your children is a truely lovely, special, special thing. I find that I really do enjoy it and fortunately, so do they. However, whilst I love reading some of their genuinely entertaining books, I do find that by the 50th rendition that morning even the most funny have started to lose their shine.
Long ago I decided that there was only one way to get through this parenting lark whilst retaining a modicum of sanity; to enjoy (and make the most of) the subversive. So, as an example, when doing jigsaw puzzles with heads, bodies and feet of different professions make sure that the burly fireman gets given the Queen's legs or the earnest Doctor is given the bather's pink swimsuit clad derriere. The kids don't notice and I can snigger away quite happily.
Recently I've noticed the subversive streak coming out in the reading aloud of story books. More specifically I've noticed that I've a tendency to give all villians in any book Australian accents and the heros of any tale your a best spiffing 1930s upper class Brit. I've no idea why I'm finding this so amusing at the moment. Perhaps it is too much listening to the early hours Ashes cricket whilst breast feeding. Perhaps it is a reaction to being called whinging one time too many. Who knows.
Fortunately for me, the kids are unlikely to grow up with the automatic assumption that the Aussies are villains as I'm absolutely rubbish at accents. Ah well, they'll probably just grow up thinking all baddies can be spotted by their inability to speak properly - a preconception unlikely to be challenged once they start watching Hollywood films.
Does anyone else use accents when reading to their kids? Which ones? And crucially for my self esteem - do you find it as amusing as I do and can you actually do the accents?