Recommended Picture Books for Adult Children

Hello. I am Kinny, currently undergoing self-therapy for Adult Children.

One cycle of AC self-therapy involves re-acquiring the maternal and paternal nurturing that was not received in childhood, acknowledging the child's self (sometimes called the Self or the Exile), reframing painful past events into something positive, and starting over.

In that process, opportunities arise to use methods like stuffed animal therapy or for the adult self to read picture books to the child self.

When I was a child, I loved picture books, and at one point, something happened in my brain that made me a child who would read the same book 20 or 30 times over...

I have an aptitude for art therapy, and since my inner child (the inner child, or the Self/Exile mentioned above) enjoys it, I have been drawing pictures, but recently I have started wanting to add words. It is still at the level of poetry.

Even though I attended a picture book class in college, I became an embedded systems engineer, so thinking I might pick up the dreams I discarded back then, I went to the Children's Library in Nakanoshima, Osaka. It was designed by Tadao Ando.

Thanks to my husband's job transfers, I have seen many libraries in regional cities in Kanto and Kyushu, but... I thought, “Osaka City is really stingy.” The scale of the population does not match the scale of the library. Moreover, this library is run on donations, they say. Huh? It's a library, right?? I almost asked that twice.

I became more convinced that Osaka is a city where the use of tax money and priorities are severely confused. The library in Omura, Nagasaki, a remote area of Japan, is much better.

Well, enough with the complaining. Based on my experience with Adult Children therapy and psychological knowledge, I will list three books that I think are recommended for these types of symptoms.

1) "Children Live as Children" by Takashi Konishi

Like me, people who did not have time to be childlike in their childhood, who took on chores at home, cared for siblings, or acted as caretakers at school, have not spent time being childlike, so they don't even know what childlike emotions are in the first place.

I myself, when I was 18 and about to become an adult, was aware that I didn't know what I wanted to do, thinking, “I don't know. But I want to get out of my parents' house no matter what.”

Therefore, my top priority was definitely to be able to leave my parents' home. I chose my university because it was one I could pass easily based on my deviation score, none of my classmates were there, and the dormitory had private rooms (laughs).

It wasn't a choice based on what I wanted to do. Like other Adult Children, it was just English for now. Just reading for now. It was a choice based on “doing things that won't hurt to have done.”

The other day, my art inhibition was lifted, and I confirmed with adult eyes (from a psychological perspective) that cognitive distortions occur over trivial things, and I was convinced, “I see, this is what was happening to the child me.”

I also came to understand the reason why such people lose track of what they want to do. I also came to understand how people who don't know what they want to do can come to know, and that is by stacking up joys that are truly small to that person, at a level that might seem trivial to adult eyes.

This book depicts well what level of joy actual children are stacking up, so for Adult Children, it is very helpful in understanding what they have lost and what they need to regain.

Conclusion:
A prescription picture book for “ACs who don't understand their emotions.” It is a book that serves as rehabilitation for raising the resolution of internal emotions and scaling joy. It is good to read as an aid to rediscovering your own “trivial joys.”

2) Barbara Cooney's "Miss Rumphius"

This book is a good read that teaches us about the level of intergenerational inheritance of values and the achievement of an individual's mission.

Miss Rumphius inherits a wish from her grandfather: 'to make the world a little more beautiful.' She achieves this wish in her later years. This is the fulfillment of her life's mission. Miss Rumphius then passes the same words on to her granddaughter.

Without any role reversal between parent and child, it is clear that the wish to make the world a better place is naturally passed down from one generation to the next, and as a result, the world becomes a better place. The scale of this mission is not some grand project that would surprise the world... it is on the level of planting flower seeds.

Recommended for those who feel overwhelmed by their parents' expectations.

Conclusion:
A gentle course correction for the 'self-sacrificing type AC.' Experience a positive intergenerational chain rather than a negative one.

3) '105 Wonderful Jobs'

I think that in Japanese child-rearing, there is a tendency to try to show children fantasy rather than the reality of society... As a child, I disliked such 'kind lies' from adults as 'deceptions,' and I was a child who thought, 'I want to know the truth about the world as soon as possible!'

Because of that, I actually disliked Japanese picture books. I thought they were just teaching lies under the guise of moral education.

Personally, I still think that the reason Japanese people cannot become wealthy regarding money is due to the influence of such moral education. It's because there are many books with naive ideas that money should increase 'without taking any concrete action.' I want to interject and say, 'Um, money doesn't grow unless there is interest...'

Well, setting that aside, I think this picture book is written for the purpose of teaching the reality that 'this is actually how the world works.'

The orchestra is the public face. Behind the scenes, various people arrive at the theater in various styles, and there are various ways of preparing...

You can see that these various people are cooperating to accomplish one thing. It feels like a tell-all story about the backstage of an orchestra.

Conclusion:
For those who 'grew up too protected from reality and became adults without being able to be independent.' Aimed at those who are maladjusted rather than over-adapted.

Wake up!! Japanese people

Japanese people really, truly need some straight talk.

How much longer,

'I did exactly what they (parents, society, teachers, politicians) told me to do, and yet...'

do you intend to keep complaining?

Your life itself will be over while you're saying that, you know?

Adult children are people who have made inappropriate adaptations to society with an 'Adapted Child' ego, but I think the ones who are cleverly reaping the benefits are the side of the politicians and the side of the vested interests. In other words, the people who do whatever they want. Narcissistic people.

And in Osaka, that is manifesting in physical reality!

Adult children are people who are easy to handle.

Walking through the streets of Osaka today, I felt that even elementary school students don't really believe that if they are good children, they will be rewarded... at least not in Osaka.

Right in front of elementary school students on their way to school, adults are running red lights on their bicycles... (lol).

The adults are living life for all they're worth.

Or rather, they are living honestly.

I suppose they can't afford to worry about the facade of not running red lights in front of children...

It was as if I could hear them saying, 'I'm going to be late for work!!'

Right or wrong, that is the reality of the adult world.

Society does not embody ideals.

If that is the case, perhaps it is important in education to foster a strong ego that can prepare for that reality.

That is exactly the question, 'How Do You Live?' being thrust upon us, isn't it? (lol).

That is what I thought about during Nakanoshima Children's Library Day.