Empty Nest: Even after the boy grows up and moves out, his mother will sometimes sneak into his house to hold him and sing the song.

A mother repeats this phrase to her son at night, continuing this as he grows up. Parents of even older children can relate. No matter how old they get, they are still yours and you love them.

When he moves out, it appears she has nothing else to occupy her time. She had no other identity other than a mom. I’ve been struggling with this myself as of late. It’s why I’m working to find things outside of motherhood to engage in. It’s an easy trap to fall into thinking that you don’t have an identity outside of that; but it’s not true. Empty nest syndrome is a real thing, but use that energy towards something more productive, my friend. I know what you’re thinking: “She always did this in the middle of the night.” But I rebuke that, because there is always either one insomniac night owl or one light-sleeping nosy neighbor in any given neighborhood. Someone would have seen and said something. Children’s author Robert Munsch published the popular picture book Love You Forever in 1986 as a way of grieving his two stillborn children. Overcome by this loss, Munsch wrote the book as an allegory of the unconditional and lifelong love that parents have for their children. Love You Forever chronicles the life of a boy as he becomes a man, as well as the life of his loving mother as she ages and eventually dies. The book has had two illustrators, Anthony Lewis and Sheila McGraw. So, I gathered 3 of my kids (ages 7, 10, & 12) around last night, and told them I wanted to get their opinion on a book. Would have loved to get the 15 year old's opinion, but he was busy sleeping off the previous night's video game marathon. You can imagine their excitement when I pulled out a baby book titled Love You Forever. The room was practically buzzing with anticipation (<---not even a little bit).

Obviously enough, I'm in the minority here, but this children's book is weird, creepy, disturbing and will probably give me more nightmares than any Stephen King novel ever did. This mom I seriously think has issues with letting her children go. Once a man gets married the woman in their life isn't you--it's the wife! And when children grow up and become adults and you should have an adult-to-adult relationship with them. Quit trying to cuddle them! Robert Munsch was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Fordham University in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and from Boston University in 1971 with a Master of Arts degree in anthropology. In fact, it turned out that parents buy it for grandparents and grandparents buy it for parents and kids buy it for everybody and everybody buys it for kids.Love You Forever is the story of a mother and her son throughout the course of the boy's life; describing his exasperating behavior throughout his youth. Only, you have to imagine that she sounds like a Valley Girl with a southern accent. Because she does, and it makes everything she says 10x more hilarious. Now lets talk about the writing. Repetitive and long-winded. "I'll like you for always" is just a terrible phrase. Despite all this Ellie still likes the book, and I see the point it's trying to make, although I don't agree with the method. And I know I'm being too literal, but seriously if you look at this book literally it will give you nightmares!!! Just for fun read it to someone purposefully trying to be creepy - just as an experiment. Trust me, you'll agree with me after that. My friend, I need you to hone your survival skills, because if a slasher tries to take you out while you’re sleeping…you’re gonna be completely screwed.