How to really love a little boy

Wow, just come across this thread. Thank you all for your comments and thoughts, and thanks especially to Sooz. I'm planning a follow-up which will be even more cheesy still, but as Tony says I am experimenting with my writing. I agree that the piece may leave a lot to be desired, but I'm just trying for the feel-good factor in this one.

Hi Sooz. Let me give the link for anybody who wants it: How to Really Love a Little Boy Got to be honest it isn't the sort of thing that appeals to me, but then I'm a cold-hearted old cynic. Well written though. I have a nasty suspicion someone's been trolling the ratings. Even a CHOC can see that it's worth more than a two.

Thanks Sirat I can't do that link thing. And I gave it a whopping great five. I love disagreeing with you as you know, you are my favourite person to disagree with because I don't get to do it very often, but this one hit the spot for me.

I just read this and I have to say I agree with sooz it is a beautiful piece. I gave it a 5. sirat thanx for the link :D

I've enjoyed other stuff by Karl, but this is not to my taste at all. It's well written, as Sirat says, but all that mushy stuff; and the imparting-wisdom-in-the-form-of-a-list style. Sorry, not for me. I think to enjoy this it would help to be a parent; and female. Good use of language though.

I don't think it's mushy and applies to a male parent as well as a female. The country's full of angry, unloved, underachieving teenage boys who need father figures and haven't got them. Excellent piece of thoughtful writing.

My father never did any of those things with me (though I'm glad he didn't insist on the matching boxers! Karl/Kai sweet, with my dad it would have ben perversion. Even if I'd been a boy) the reason this touched me so deeply is it made me wish I'd had a father like that. I think it's brilliant.

I think it's a sincere piece of writing and well written but the TONE is open to criticism. On the first reading it I thought it could just as easily have been entitled "I am a good father and here is why" I would prefer if it had some more tension and left one thinking "Am I or am I not a good father?" Because then it would lead to questioning rather than judgment. But maybe we are judging it as fiction in a narrow way , just because that's what we are used to seeing on abctales. The piece would not look out of place in a magazine specifically about family /parenting. Or presented as a journal piece, in the sense that it would then appear more reflective.

There's a wonderful reply to this one here. I don't think it was done consciously but the comparison is hilarious. It's the third of the three short poems on this page.

Now suitably cherried! It's cheesy, for sure, but it works. You can hear the author's sincerity through it and that gives it great power. I like this 'list' style - for this piece. It hones down what would otherwise be a clumsy and overlong homily. I know Karl's style so well that it is difficult sometimes to be objective but I think that he is trying to branch out here and for that he should be applauded. I accept the need for a more dramatic - and possibly honest - content that leaves you examining your own attempts at parenthood. No one is perfect and this father is that. We need to question more deeply the effects of our actions as parents and if that was added to this piece then I think it would be stupendous!

i agree with some of tony's final comments, and that karl should be applauded if he is trying his hand at writing differently the poem itself made me uncomfortable - i think its dealing in a version of life rather than the stuff of it - but its the kind of writing that is guaranteed a response from the reader one way or the other