I WANT a Mrs Piggle-Wiggle to play with my kids so I don't have to! I want a Mrs Piggle-Wiggle to teach them to enjoy doing dishes and eating vegetables and sharing! Actually, what I really want is to be 8 years old again and walk down the street to Mrs Piggle-Wiggle's house and play dress-up with her wardrobe and make cookies and drink tea with her. In fact, the rules at her house are to make any and all children as comfortable, secure, well fed and highly entertained and acknowledged as possible. And, in retrospect, she was also probably a tiny twinkling spark that influenced the generation of dedicated, child centered (indulgent?) parents we have become. What is so marvelous about Mrs Piggle-Wiggle? Well, she was way ahead of the curve when it comes to Super Nanny and Nanny 911. I was lucky enough to grow up in a home with a copy from my mother's childhood and have read and reread these hilarious stories over and over to myself and then to my children, each one in turn, with the older ones listening in. I am worried that the singularly remarkable works of Betty MacDonald, first published in 1947, are not as well known and read as they once were.
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