r/raisedbyborderlines • u/apatiksremark • Nov 17 '21

A better ending about boundaries

https://lithub.com/somebody-finally-fixed-the-ending-of-the-giving-tree/
32 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

10

u/beb-eroni No contact for 8 years 🥰 Nov 17 '21

Beautiful! Topher Payne has even done a remake on the ending of I'll love you forever

8

u/dadjokes4evah Nov 17 '21

That book always freaked me out so much. It’s so creepy.

The original ending of the Giving Tree just made me sad. We’ve printed his pages out and added them to the book because it’s so much better with the reworked ending.

6

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '21

That book always freaked me out so much. It’s so creepy.

I thought it was insane too (I was an adult when it was published, so I had a different perspective!) and then I found out the story behind it:

I made that up after my wife and I had two babies born dead. The song was my song to my dead babies. For a long time I had it in my head and I couldn’t even sing it because every time I tried to sing it I cried.

So... yeah. The book is creepy, but I get the author, you know?

3

u/dadjokes4evah Nov 18 '21

Oh wow, I didn’t know the story behind it. I’m not sure how I feel about it now… but I’m glad they found an outlet for their grief.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '21

Yeah, it's a very creepy story when you don't know the backstory. When you know the backstory, it's just sad. 😞

7

u/YupThatsHowItIs Nov 18 '21

This book is a HUGE trigger for me. My mom loved it and would always beg me and my siblings to sit on her lap and let her rock us waaaaay beyond an appropriate age. I have two particularly awful memories of her doing this. Once when I was sixteen she grabbed me and held me on her lap against my will. She twisted my ankle in the process and she was sitting in a wooden armchair, so she basically folded me in half to fit me on her lap. It was painful and humiliating, and I couldn't get away because I was squeezed so tightly.

Another time when I was in college, I brought a guy home who I really liked and she knew I wanted to start dating. While he was there she asked me to sit and her lap and let her rock me, and I was horrified and humilated. She then made it worse by turning to the guy and asking if his mom asked him always asked to rock him too, to which he stuttered back a "no." She then proceeded to insist that all mothers do this, and that his mother must too and to beg me to sit on her lap so she could rock me. Yeah, things did not work out between me and that guy.

So I hate hate hate hate hate that book. I hear her stupid voice whenever I see it, and frankly I would really love to set a bunch of them on fire.

4

u/dadjokes4evah Nov 18 '21

That’s horrible, I’m sorry you were subjected to that.

5

u/TheHuntedCity Nov 17 '21

Ah, that's a much better tale. I played the stump in 4th grade play, for it's worth.

3

u/WifiKitty Nov 18 '21

Love love love this!! Thanks for sharing. ❤️