I’m feeling pretty torn about this, honestly. My daughter (3F) has been on a tear (literally) with her books lately — she rips them up, even after we’ve explained so many times that it’s not okay. We’ve talked gently, we’ve been patient, we’ve explained how special books are and how important it is to take care of the things we love. She knows it’s wrong — you can see it in the way she acts guilty before we even say anything.

Still, no matter how many chances we give her, the ripping keeps happening. We’ve finally decided that we’re going to take the books away for now.

The part that’s breaking my heart is bedtime. Storytime has always been our special thing, especially since she started nursery and welcomed a new baby brother. It’s a part of our day where she gets undivided attention, cuddles, and calmness. I’m scared to take it away — it feels like punishing her for bigger feelings she might not even know how to handle.

But I also believe in consequences. I don’t want to set the expectation that no matter what she does, everything stays the same. So WIBTA if we didn’t read bedtime stories for a while as a consequence for ripping her books?

I want to teach her respect and care, but I’m also scared of taking away something she clearly needs during a huge transition in her little life. I’m trying my best to be chill and patient… but I also don’t want to feel like I’m letting her walk all over boundaries.

EDIT : Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. We are definitely taking the books away from her room where she can’t access them for a while. We are on the fence about cancelling story time (tonight we definitely will), she just loves reading / listening to stories and I don’t want her to fall away from it.

However, she won’t have access to books in her room for the foreseeable and she’ll have to deal with the consequence that she can’t lay in bed and look at a book after we’ve put her to bed. We will be taking the book away with us.

TL;DR: My 3-year-old has been ripping her books even after being taught not to. Would I be the asshole if I took away bedtime stories as a consequence, even though I know she’s going through a lot with a new brother and starting nursery?