“Love You Forever” is a Creepy Book

I have always thought the children’s book Love you Forever was creepy. I know that is an unpopular opinion, because it seems that basically everyone I know loves that book. But come on…the mom drives all the way across town and climbs in through a window in order to rock her adult child…while he is still sleeping…CREEPY. However, after tonight, I can understand the sentiment behind it a little bit more.

My son used to love it when we sang and rocked him to sleep. In fact, as most new parents do, I was worried that we were creating an unhealthy sleeping habit for him by always rocking him to sleep. Yet the rocking him to sleep didn’t last long, after he turned about 6 months old, he couldn’t fall asleep with us rocking him, he had to be alone in his crib to fall asleep. It was a bittersweet moment when he started falling asleep on his own but now my son is 1 year old, so big and sleeps so well on his own.

Tonight was going like it usually does. I gave him a bath, brushed his teeth, we read books, prayed and then I put him down in his crib. Unlike most nights though, he was still awake 30 minutes later. I went back up, only to find that he had thrown all of his stuff out of his crib (his pacifier, water cup, and book). I picked him and his pacifier up and took him over to the rocking chair thinking maybe I would just read him another book. When we sat down though, he laid his head on my chest. He is so big now that with his head on my chest, his legs and feet were dangling off the side of my legs. I took my arms and wrapped them around him and started singing worship music to him while we rocked. He hummed along with my singing for a while and then relaxed.

For 20 minutes, we rocked like that: me singing and him resting on me. He eventually closed his eyes. Those 20 minutes were some of the most peaceful moments I have had in a while. While we rocked, all I could think about was if I, a flawed human being, can love my son this much, how much more does God love us. It was a special 20 minutes that I don’t take for granted.

So after that peaceful 20 minutes, I can now understand the sentiment behind Love You Forever and a mom who would want to hold on to that time of rocking her child while they are sleeping. I still think it is creepy that she crawled through a window to rock a grown adult, but I have a little bit more appreciation for the book.

All of that to say, hold your little one close and appreciate the moments you have with them, because those sweet moments don’t last forever. And I’m pretty sure if you tried to climb into someone’s window as a grown adult in real life, that something bad will happen…