Originally Posted by DAD22
Originally Posted by La Texican
People keep saying everybody has access to a free public library. It would be an extrordinary kid who has the EF skills to do all that and never lose the books. The librarian will give you some slack, but my friend's kid can not use her library card because she has five books somewhere around the house she can't find. Everybody knows a story about some unlikely kid who did use the library successfully, but still. My kids library books stay on a top shelf and I told them not to use a stool to get them, only ask me.
My kids are 2 and 4, and their library books (which we check out 20 at a time) are kept on the bottom of the bookshelves in their rooms, where they can easily peruse them and make up their minds about which one they want to read. We have never lost a book. We have never significantly damaged a library book. We have repaired books that were damaged when we checked them out. My kids have been taught to take care of books. We don't bend pages. We don't stand on them. We don't throw them. We try not to drop them. My son is certainly not known for a gentle nature, but he manages to live up to our expectations most of the time, and he understands that there will be consequences if he doesn't. (That sounds bad, but I'm talking about taking away a favorite toy for an evening. The threat of losing a toy is much more effective for him than the threat of time out.)

I really don't think that using the library is a privilege reserved for only the extraordinarily well behaved and organized. I think a family that absolutely can't manage it is the exception. I suppose there is the matter of priorities though.

I agree that using the library with small children is a risk than many people really can't afford, and I think it's reasonable to suggest that people who are financially struggling probably stop going to the library as frequently after the first time they lose a DVD or book.

There is no way I would be able to check out the 20-30 books we check out at a time and keeping them in a spot my child has easy access to all day long if replacing them would be impossible for us. So far we've only lost one book, which was easy to replace used in good condition on amazon ($6) but for another family that one $6 book might have kept them out of the library for a long time.