Regarding my now 3 year old and reading?

No, it certainly isn't wrong to feel that way. My five - year - old is an independent reader, but I still read aloud to him. He tends to want to hear the same books over and over. We're reading Ramona And Beezus now, and he wants me to read one chapter in particular repeatedly. All I can say is to just grin and bear it. Go with whatever gets them excited about reading. You can also take frequent trips to your local library and let him pick out his own books.

No, the frustration is normal. Any adult who has to repeat the same story over and over is likely to go a little insane. My son hit that phase around three too. It's because they learn from repetition and like the predictability of the story. It is also the beginning of reading, because they're learning that the words on the page tell you what to say and they don't change. In my house, we invented the rule: "You can only read a book three times and then it has to go away for the day" (It goes right along with other rules we invented to survive the preschool years: "If you whine, you get nothing." "Bite food, not friends." and "We only say potty words in the bathroom.") LOL - at least one benefit of them being at such a concrete black-and-white rule-driven state of development is that you don't have to argue once the rule is established, all you do is ask, "What's the rule?" and they respond with the correct answer.

I know you're not looking for solutions, but what helped me at this stage was going to story time at the library weekly. We'd pick out three new books each week and read them over and over, but at least I could look forward to something new the following week. We also established regular reading times (eg. after bath, before bed). I love that reading could be used as a reward, "If you clean up your room before lunch, then Mama will read you one book." I also used a timer to help limit the endless asking for more. If the timer said ten minutes, when it rang we stopped and it wasn't me saying no all the time. My son gets really excited setting the timer on the microwave for 5 or 10 minutes more of something good. ;-) Good luck, this too will pass and he'll be reading to you (because you've read it so many times it's memorized) in no time!

It'll take some effort on your part, but what you want to do is order in one book that will solve a lot of your problems- promise ! The book is called "A Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jand and Friends. It is a square yellow book with 193 pages. You "can" find new / unused copies, but they'll be in used book stores or on the internet. This book was meant to be mastered by three year olds. My children were reading it alone at 3 years old, from front cover to back cover, all 193 pages at one sitting. What your son is asking you to do, is teach him to read. He's asking you to repeat and repeat the stories, because he want to figure out how you're doing it. With most books, he's not going to be able to "catch on" at age three, because there isn't enough repetition. The books either build up vocabulary too fast, or have pictures that aren't interesting enough to captivate a three year old, or the books don't have enough pages for a kid that's curious and insistent upon having his curiosity satisfied. His need to read, is similar to a child's need to "eat". He's "hungry" to learn. The best way for you to satisfy that hunger, at his age level is the specific yellow 193 page Dick and Jane book that I recommended above. He'll be reading on his own by the third day. Once he finds a book that he can read by himself, he'll calm down because his appetite is being satisfied. It's not the easiest book to lay your hands on, but it's worth the effort once you've seen how happy it makes him, and it's designed to be memorized and read by a three year old with an appetite for books.

there's nothing wrong about feeling frustrated. but perhaps you'd be less frustrated if you understand that's totally typical for a 3-year-old. they often want to hear the same story over and over (when they have nothing left to get out of it, they'll move on to something else) and they often want to have big discussions about the pictures and the story and whatever the story reminds them of. it's fine if you don't make it through a story because you got sidetracked with the pictures or something else.

i could probably recite 200 children's books by heart from the hundreds of times i've read them to my four kids. and one of my kids spent about a year wanting to do nothing but inventory the vehicles on the pages of each book. that's okay!

"What I want to know is if it wrong to feel this way sometimes?"

Oh, no. Quite normal.

I went on a "Spot strike" for a week or so recently; I was so Spot-addled I couldn't take it anymore, and just cheerfully told my 2yo "No, it can't be Spot; Mummy is on a Spot strike! How about [other book]?" It's okay to do things to make yourself less crazy.

The saving grace around here is that we have a LOT of books -- and so a LOT of favourites, so it's not too hard to talk my tot into one that's not driving me mad. Hit school fund-raising used book fairs to stock up cheaply...

You're entitled to feel any way you'd like! This is typical 3 year old behavior. And yes, it is frustrating.

All the best.