Head Tale

I'm doing a topic of my own choice for one of the assignments in our children's library class and have asked the half dozen or so men in the class for their assistance.  But I figured I might as well put this out to anybody who happens across this blog as well since I'm looking for the widest variety of experiences (if there's a woman reading this, feel free to have your husband/partner/father/son if over 18 write to me.)

Here's the e-mail I sent to my classmates…

I'm asking for your assistance by sending me a short summary of  your experiences and thoughts on the topic of being a male patron going into the children's library or children's section at your local branch. 

Some things you might consider: when you go to a children's section, do you go alone or with someone (female friend/wife/children/someone else)?  What time of day to do you go?  How often do you go?  Which branch(es)? Do you feel comfortable going to the children's section of a library?  Why or why not?  Have you had any interactions with staff that were positive or negative?  How do parents who are there tend to react to your presence?

There are a couple reasons I want to do this as my topic – when I told someone I was taking this class, they said “Oh, you must be the only guy” and I replied, “No, there's about half a dozen of us.”  But this made me realise that even being a male who was interested in this area was seen as abnormal somehow.  Then I talked to the course instructor who said they used to have a part of this class where the students visited a children's library but had to cancel it because the men felt so awkward

Anyhow, I'm not planning to hand in the paper until later in the semester but if you can e-mail me your responses as soon as possible, I'd appreciate it.