Letters to Judy, What Your Kids Wish They Could Tell You, published in 1986, is a collection of letters from children to the popular author, Judy Blume, best known for “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret”, “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” and “Blubber”.
Dear Judy,
My name is Ramona and I’m ten. I live in Seattle and I have one younger brother and a thirteen-year-old sister who’s a brat.
My mother is going to law school. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad. All my friends’ mothers are housewives. Sure, some of the mothers work but no one as hard as my mother. She leaves at 7:15 A.M. and doesn’t get home until 9 or 10 P.M. She wears old blue jeans just about every day. Everyone else’s mother always wears skirts.
Ramona, age 10
Ramona is a typical ten year old girl. She just wants her mother to stop embarrassing her in front of her friends. Cook! Clean! Be home when I come back from school! For the love of God, wear a skirt, you savage. Keep in mind, these letters are from the 70s and 80s.
Earth to Ramona, wake up! If you’re going to be able to afford any decently reputable college, you ought to thank your lucky stars that your mother is going to law school.
Oh but wait, this the pre-millennial era, when tuition wasn’t in a serious economic bubble and when an undergraduate degree was worth more than a square of Costco toilet paper.
In 2023, the letter .. er.. email.. might read something like this:
Dear Judy,
My name is Ramona. I live in Seattle and I have one younger brother and a thirteen-year-old sister who’s kind of a bitch. Excuse my language, but she really is.
My mom doesn’t work. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad. All my friends’ mothers are business women, lawyers or doctors and most make more money than their dads!
My mom packed me lunch for school while all the other kids got burgers from the cafeteria, or better yet, from In and Out across the street. She’s always home when I get back from school. Sometimes I’ll bring a friend home and it’s embarrassing. “What does your Mom even do all day?” they ask.
Ramona, age 10
