Picturebook Review: What Do Parents Do? (When You're Not Home)

What Do Parents Do? (When You're Not Home), written by Jeanie Franz Ransom and illustrated by Cyd Moore, is a fun picturebook about what one boy imagines his parents are doing while he and his sister spend the night at their grandparent's house. While he is singing songs, drinking lemonade and feeding chickens with his grandparents and sister, he imagines his parents doing all the things he is not allowed to do. Are his parents jumping on the beds, sliding down the stairs on pillows, and eating junk food while the young boy is eating a healthy dinner and taking a bath? When they return home his parents say they had a quiet night, but some feathers and a mended pillow tell a different story.

What Do Parents Do? is a delightful book that shows exactly what I picture going through my own children's heads. I am fairly certain my kids believe I am playing with their toys and watching television all day when they are at school or with family, sometimes I wish it were true. The illustrations are fun and lighthearted. I would have liked a moment or two when the reality of the parents maybe sleeping well or having a quiet dinner were shown, but even without that the book was a good one to share.

What Do Parents Do? would be a good book to read with children away from their parents for the first time, or in preparation for a sleep over. It would be a good discussion starter about what parents really do, although we do not necessarily have to let them know that we are eating ice cream before dinner or having a romantic evening- right?