By now, we all know the benefits of reading to children from birth. The emotional bonding, the language development, the cognitive skills. Plus, there’s a sleep benefit, as Dr. Robert Needlman of Reach Out and Read discussed at the Horn Book’s Fostering Lifelong Learners symposium a few years ago. Tiny babies need to learn to fall asleep, and reading aloud can help signal the transition from wakefulness to sleep, even in infancy. Well, that seems reasonable, but what if our littlest ones don’t follow the good doctor’s orders?

Mine sure didn’t. When my children were babies, I tried mightily to get them interested in books, but they weren’t having it. They were too busy squirming, crying, bouncing, pulling up, clinging, crawling, crying (did I already say that?), etc., to sit still and listen to a story. When it came to the books themselves, their preferences were tasting, dropping, and throwing. It made me sad and a little panicky that this meant they were never going to like books.

To make a long story short, my husband and I eventually came to the conclusion that babies didn’t need homework and new parents didn’t either. We were already being inundated with rights-and-wrongs. Reading is good! Breast milk is best! Co-sleeping is bad! (Or, wait, is it good?) Yes, perhaps in a perfect world. But in the real world of work and school and siblings and just keeping things together: maybe.

So, we kept trying with the books, but in a lower-key sort of way. And by about a year old, both boys were all about the books. Caps for Sale, Frog and Toad, George and Martha. Soon we were reading morning, noon, and/or (over)night, and naturally, rather than forcibly, incorporating books into the bedtime routine. (Did this actually make them fall asleep? Not usually. And were we always reading great literature? We were not.)

So, yes! Of course! Read to them. It’s totally worth it. But don’t feel bad if some days You. Just. Can’t. There are always those days when you could barely remember your own name, let alone crack open a book. Maybe your baby already loves books. Maybe she doesn’t seem to care. Maybe it’s somewhere in between. But always keep in mind the new-parent mantra: with babies things are bound to change, and sometimes even for the better!

p.s. Who remembers those ads for "Your Baby Can Read!"? Shocker! No he can't!