My grandmother was persistent when I was a kid:
1. She always did my eggs runny although I hated it (I still shiver at the mere thought)
2. She kept on reading Struwwelpeter (Pelle Snusk) to me although it scared the s**t out of me (and still kind of does)
Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman (1809-1894) was written as a children's book and I bet the parents of the mid-1840's thought it was really practical and nice to teach their kids some good ol' morals. What good it was to me I'm much less sure of, I was scared to death by Slovenly Peter and even more by the tailor in The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb:
"The door flew open, in he ran,
The great, long, red-legged scissorman.
Oh! children, see! the tailor's come
And caught our little Suck-a-Thumb.
Snip! Snap! Snip! the scissors go;
And Conrad cries out - Oh! Oh! Oh!
Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast;
That both his thumbs are off at last."
It did not make me quit sucking my thumbs, neither to stop biting my nails.
Read it all here.
Read a new take on the stories here.
