A Story about Ping

[Beth1231]

Have you ever read this old, old Chines folktale about a duck named Ping. I HATE it :sick One of my fellow teachers knows I'm doing Chinese New Year soon and brought me a few Asian themed books...Ping was among them. I took one look and said "Oh, have you read this book?" and when she answered yes, I commented "I think it's awful! The way the duck gets gets hit and everything." She smiled a little bit like I was amusing her and replied "Well, that's what happens." And I was soooo surprised (since she is a teacher in a very gentle, AP preschool like myself) that I said "Not in most of our students homes, it doesn't!" She smiled again and said I was funny and walked away. Ugh :sick
For those of you who haven't read the story, it's about a little duck who is always last in line to get onto a little boat where all the ducks live for the night. The last duck always gets a whack with a little stick (from the duck keeper). Well, one day Ping decides he is tired of getting hit and hides in the reeds, spends an awful night freezing and escaping predators and then the next morning...yeah, you guessed it. He's last in line getting in the little boat and gets hit anyway! And that's the end of this stupid book. :sick I'll never read it to my kids.

[Mother of Sons]

Yup, we have it.

[MarynMunchkins]

We have it too. My dd rewrote the story in pictures where Ping gets picked up and snuggled by the Master when he came home because he missed the little duckling so much. :heart

[Beauty4Ashes]

I had that one growing up.

[hsgbdmama]

It is one of the books for our homeschool curriculum, and I focus more on the need to stay with your family (and getting lost if you don't) rather than the hitting. :shrug

[Aisling]

It was a staple in our house growing up. I really don't care for it. :(

[caringmommy]

Yeah, I was pretty shocked the first time I read it. I've seen it on so many reading lists so I didn't even pre-read it. It wasn't one I read as I child. I did some quick editing for my kids and then quickly put it in the "return to library" pile. There are so many wonderful books out there, I don't feel like I need to read it to them.

[DogwoodMama]

It's a BFIAR book, I think.. I guess that is one to avoid then. Thanks for the heads-up!

[MidnightCafe]

It's used in Before Five in a Row. So, I checked it out from the library. I'm not a fan of it, either.

[The Tickle Momster]

Glad I'm not the only one who didn't like this book. I got lots of good reviews about it. I just really didn't enjoy it, even the parts that didn't have to do with hitting.

[TulipMama]

I got it before I was gung-ho GBD and felt yucky about it. . . But I think I did read it a couple of times to the kids anyway.

[Jenny]

That sounds really familiar. I am almost positive I read it when I was growing up. Don't think I'll be getting that one for our collection! :no2

[J3K]

I'll step out and say I loved the book , the artwork , the history behind it and the message I gave to my kids from there was to stick with family. We also talked about hitting and how that time , that era it was an expected form of punishment and it was also thought to be appropriate.

I have a really hard time that most kids' books today are soooo syrupy and sappy and smushy with "happy feelings" that nothing "real" gets addressed unless you purchase a specific book. I liked that this book addressed a specific issue , the duck didn't like being hit , and we also talked about running TO something instead of AWAY from something. Running TO freedom and a life of no hitting would've gotten Ping much farther than he did go. Having no plan , no idea where to go or what to do , Ping ran AWAY and ended up thinking his situation wasn't so bad afterall.

We found multiple lessons in that book and I would (and do) continue to recommend it today.

[The Tickle Momster]

J3K, I can totally understand what you are saying and I think you make a good point. For me, I have a hard time with my little ones even using words like spank. It just makes me uncomfortable. I may pull the book out when they are a little older and read it with more of what you are talking about. Thank you for sharing. :hug

[Heather Micaela]

my kids are being raised by a reformed spanker and sadly already know the term and the experience :( So we do like J3k and talk about how things used to be and what could be done better. But it is not the book we read every bedtime either.

Now bedtime for francis :laughtears That is SOOO written by a parent. I do edit the end of that one or at least commentate

[Beth1231]

Oh gosh! I remember my mom reading me "bedtime for Francis" and I was so humiliated by spanking being in that book and my mother reading about it that I interrupted her and asked her not to finish it. She finished it for my younger brother. Ugh :sick Any mention of spanking in books or movies or on TV used to embarass me soooo much as a child. I remember on one episode of "Little House on the Prarie", some young boy was going to get a "whipping" and my mother left to check on dinner. When she came back in, she asked if he had gotten the punishment and I was so humiliated that she asked (I was sooo sensitive to what was happening in my house) that I actually yelled "It's not funny! It's something that we kids have to deal with and it's not funny!" I guess I said that because of the knowing smile on her face when she asked. I remember mom was pretty surprised at my outburst but didn't comment. Bad memories. Okay, I'm off topic, but it's my thread; I can do that, right? :mrgreen
I have no idea how I'm going to handle my child(ren) knowing about spanking and all that icky stuff. I think they are going to have a lot of memories of mom looking like this :/ :nails :(

[Heather Micaela]

I don't like the spanking part of francis, but the rest is great.

[Rbonmom]

See, I'm so very cautious about what I read to ds, and I'm the same way with what he watches. He takes so much from it at this age, and I am determined not to normalize violence for him in any way. Even if it seems "silly" because it's a duck, it still is setting it up as normal for caregivers to hit to enforce rules :no2 After majoring in psychology and seeing the links between violence in our kids and the sheer amount of violent images they are expose to early on, it's something I take very seriously :yes
JK3 you'd probably :sick at all the sappy emotion books we have ;). But I also have some really cute books about natural consequences like, "I'll always love you" where the little bear goes through a list of things he's not supposed to do like making a mess, breaking things, etc... and the mom responds with things like "you'll have to help clean up" or "there won't be anything for lunch" (if he empties out the fridge). I love that kind of thing, and it seem rare to find kids books that don't use punishment or punitive tactics.

[hey mommy]

booo.. :(

I haven't read it in a LONG time, but I've never liked it.. It always rubbed me the wrong way and I never knew why..

[Beth1231]

I was reading "A Fly went By" and the little boy picks up a stick and threatens to hit the "bad" animals if they don't tell him why they are chasing the other animals! I was so suprised while I was reading this to my kids, that I made a hasty attempt to change the words (they didn't rhyme, but so what ;)) I'm not going to repeat "Use your words and not your hands" fifty million times a morning and then read THAT!

[erinee]

I'll step out and say I loved the book , the artwork , the history behind it and the message I gave to my kids from there was to stick with family. We also talked about hitting and how that time , that era it was an expected form of punishment and it was also thought to be appropriate.

I have a really hard time that most kids' books today are soooo syrupy and sappy and smushy with "happy feelings" that nothing "real" gets addressed unless you purchase a specific book. I liked that this book addressed a specific issue , the duck didn't like being hit , and we also talked about running TO something instead of AWAY from something. Running TO freedom and a life of no hitting would've gotten Ping much farther than he did go. Having no plan , no idea where to go or what to do , Ping ran AWAY and ended up thinking his situation wasn't so bad afterall.

We found multiple lessons in that book and I would (and do) continue to recommend it today.


:shifty :tu

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I love Ping, have since I was little. We had so much fun doing the FIAR lesson for that one. But then, my parents weren't terribly punitive -- I can only actually remember getting spanked once or twice -- so I guess I didn't think about it too much.

My kids know most of their friends get spanked. That bothers me far more than reading about a duck in a very old-fashioned story book getting a spank. :( When we read stories that have spanking in them, I talk about it like J3K does, that it's something that parents used to do a lot because they didn't know any better and that now more and more parents realize there are better ways of handling problems. Just like when we're watching an old cartoon and a character has a cigarette or cigar or pipe -- I tell them people back then didn't know how bad it was for you, but now we do and that while some people still choose to do it, not nearly as many do and more and more are trying to quit.

[Blue Savannah]

We love love love this book as well! :heart

A spank on the back for a duck is quite different in my mind than spanking a child. If I ride a horse, I kick the horse to make him go, but I wouldn't dream of kicking my child.

I don't tie my child to a boat, either, but that is something they did in their culture. That's how I've explained it to my dd.

[bliss]

Ping was one of my favorite books as a child, and looking back, I can't put my finger on why? I just went through all the kids' books and it is not here, must still be at my mom's.

[jtidwell]

Oh, I remember Ping. That book gave me nightmares when I was a kid. Ugh.

We had "Bedtime for Frances," too, but I don't remember it having a spanking scene at all, so it must not have made much of an impact. :) One of my favorites was "Blueberries for Sal." The little girl wanders away from her mother while picking blueberries, but the mother is really cool about it -- no punishment or panic! (I think I'm remembering it correctly; maybe not.)

[Heather Micaela]

blueberries for sal is great :)
there is no spanking in Francis - just the threat thereof. So one can easily change some of the narration or just say daddy was grumpy because he was tired :giggle

[Wonder Woman]

yeah, I think the trauma of 'whack and smack made Francis think of a spanking' depends entirely upon how 'whacked and smacked' you were as a kid :/

While I think Francis is adorable, I don't have that book for Jaden. I can't. :shrug

[Heather Micaela]

yeah, I think the trauma of 'whack and smack made Francis think of a spanking' depends entirely upon how 'whacked and smacked' you were as a kid :/

While I think Francis is adorable, I don't have that book for Jaden. I can't. :shrug

I don't like that part :( but since I wasn't spanked it is not so persnolllay hard for me. I just re-edit

Now a birthday for francis, bread and jam for francis, and a baby sister for francis :tu

[erinee]

yeah, I think the trauma of 'whack and smack made Francis think of a spanking' depends entirely upon how 'whacked and smacked' you were as a kid :/

While I think Francis is adorable, I don't have that book for Jaden. I can't. :shrug

I don't like that part :( but since I wasn't spanked it is not so persnolllay hard for me. I just re-edit

Now a birthday for francis, bread and jam for francis, and a baby sister for francis :tu


Yeah, if you like Francis in general, but just not that one reference, there are lots of other Francis books that don't mention spanking or punishment at all. :tu

[mama j]

yeah, I think the trauma of 'whack and smack made Francis think of a spanking' depends entirely upon how 'whacked and smacked' you were as a kid :/


When I was reading that one to my dd, I panicked and read "Whack and smack made Francis think of pancakes!" So that is how we read it now and my dd always says Francis went to bed because she was thinking about having pancakes for breakfast! LOL!

[Heather Micaela]

yeah, I think the trauma of 'whack and smack made Francis think of a spanking' depends entirely upon how 'whacked and smacked' you were as a kid :/


When I was reading that one to my dd, I panicked and read "Whack and smack made Francis think of pancakes!" So that is how we read it now and my dd always says Francis went to bed because she was thinking about having pancakes for breakfast! LOL!

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

[Mamatoto]

I was horrified by the Ping book...and wrote a bad review on it somewhere, can't remember where now. :scratch I remember that Frances book from a child and it filled me with fear and I won't read it to my kids. :no2