Don't Diss the Knuffle

to: Connie Shultz cc: Mo Willems re: A Dad Who Handles It All You wrote an article that was in the April 4 PARADE insert of my Sunday newspaper about how you were a horrible mother for buying "Knuffle Bunny." Not so. I totally get the point that both you (and your son) were trying to make, and I heartily agree with his statement, "It's ultimately harmful to women, too, when children's books portray dads as absent (or simply incompetent) parents..." Yes, there are terrible children's books out there -- I tend to be a pretty harsh children's book critic, but I have to completely disagree that Knuffle Bunny represents an incompetent parent. Sure, the dad is in charge of taking Trixie down to the laundromat to do laundry, and her stuffed bunny is accidentally left. But I would like to point out that 1) the dad is taking his daughter to do laundry, which my very enlightened and modern husband does very infrequently, and which tells me that Trixie's daddy is taking an active role in his family AND crossing the gender gap; 2) as you can clearly see on the page where Trixie is "helping" her dady put the luandry into the machine, he is being anything but incompetent -- indeed, he is so busy enjoying his child's antics that he's paying more attention to her than the chore he's doing; 3) he is teaching Trixie important life skills; and 4) clearly he's the type of parent that would never knowingly cause distress to his own child -- when he realizes what's happened, he's clearly thunderstruck. Additionally, I believe this book wonderfully illustrates that there comes a moment in every parent's life when your child has a crisis you could have done nothing to prevent, and this book also shows Mommy and Daddy working together (Mommy identifying the problem, Daddy finding the solution) to save the day. The fact that Mommy first notices that Knuffle Bunny is missing is important to the story, both comically and to help the story's flow -- it's meant to be coincidental, not political. And besides, what's so wrong with Mommy being completely right every once in a while? Daddy got to be the hero that finds Knuffle Bunny. That's the way life works at our house -- next time, Daddy will identify the problem, and Mama will find Bear, right where the two-year-old left him -- at the bottom of her tiniest play-purse. And sometimes the two-year-old has to do without Bear until she can remember where she put him three days ago. All solutions are good, for different reasons -- just like this is an excellent and relevant book that all parents should enjoy and identify with -- if only for the part where Trixie goes "boneless." Because even if you are one of those parents who can recognize the difference between a "hungry" cry and a "tired" cry (I'm not until I've known this new person for a few months), guaranteed you've been patient until it's inhumanly possible to remain patient any longer, and your precious child goes boneless or throws a horrible fit in the middle of the grocery store -- and then you're thunderstruck by the realization of what your child actually needs (hint: a nap, not the candy he's throwing the fit over) and you do everything in your power to make life happy again. That's what what Knuffle Bunny shows -- that being a parent is unpredictable, hard, funny, amazing, and totally worth it. Sincerely, Natalie Smith