I HATE GREG HEFFLEY

Time for another brain dropping from yours truly. This time I am going to put my “Mom Hat” on. I am constantly amazed, and annoyed, at how often I have to wear this hat.

I hate Greg Heffley - the main character in The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. That is, until I watched the movies. My son absolutely loves reading these books – that alone makes them a worthwhile investment. But in the books Greg is absolutely atrocious, and I am counting on my abilities as a parent to overshadow what my son is reading.

When I read the books, all I see is a selfish, purposefully underachieving, devious, brat. While occasionally there is a charming nugget into the inner workings of a middle-school boy’s brain, I can’t sympathize with him at all. Every embarrassing thing that happens to him fills me with joy.

Since my son loves the books, he of course, wanted to watch the movies. I watched the first movie with him a few months ago, and wasn’t overly impressed with the movie itself. I was amazed, though, to find Greg a sympathetic, picked upon boy. And Isaac thoroughly enjoyed the movie, which is amazing, as he normally can’t sit through anything that isn’t Phineas and Ferb! (A delightfully eccentric Disney cartoon with Penn and Teller-esque, main characters, in that one speaks and the other doesn’t, who are inventors. But that’s for another blog!)

Sunday night we rented the second movie, “Rodrick Rules”, to watch as a family. For anyone who doesn’t know, Rodrick is Greg’s older brother who is constantly picking on Greg, and going out of his way to get him in trouble. And while some of the parental antics were a bit “Hollywood-hokey”, this movie was quite enjoyable.

As much as I despise the Greg Heffley on paper, I will continue to buy the books so my son will be more inclined to read; but, ironically, I wait with bated breath for the next movie.