Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time

Bedtime stories feature prominently in the development of your child. It is there that they get their first introduction to literature dealing with life’s issues, right and wrong, good and bad, happy and sad, and challenges and victories. Mother Goose, in a large book collection of rhymes and tales, was the “go to” book when my children were young. Ma Goose was supplemented by Dr. Seuss, of whom I am personally a fan.

Having said that, I also have vivid memories of my children, instead of asking for a favorite story, saying, “Tell us about when you were little“, often adding excitingly, “...and bad.” And I did.

I know very little about the early lives of my parents before they became parents, and that was a void which I have been determined not to repeat. I wanted my children to understand that their parents were not just bread winners and chauffeurs, and that Grandmas and Grandpas weren”t always old. Answering their “Tell us….” questions honestly, and hopefully cleverly, was a way to share personal and family history in a receptive environment, and to create images for them of the lives that preceded them.

So during bedtime storytime, my children learned of the time I backed up too close to the heater and caught on fire, and my belief that my father was spanking me for no good reason when he swatted me to put out the fire. They learned about my opening a charge account at the neighborhood store when I was twelve and had a paper route. And with widened eyes they heard of me using a hammer to round off all the edges of the concrete steps leading to our porch. (And they are still rounded.) And on and on. They listened.

And they remember. Last year for my octogenarian birthday they gave me the gift I always request and enjoy, beer, one bottle for each year. On each bottle was a handwritten tag referring to some part of my life. So for almost three months I had a daily trek through memory lane along with my beer. Tags saying things like “A Thousand Beers Ago'' referring to a song I wrote in college titled ”A Million Tears Ago”, “3rd Place in the Race'' about a long distance race in high school where I had intended to come in 3rd but accidentally came in 2nd. One is labeled “A Snake Crawled in This Beer and Died” referring to a country song I had once written, and taught them, called “ A Snake Crawled in my Belly and Died ''. Another read “ 1 trunk, 5 guys” referring to a time in my youth when 5 of us shared one pair of swimming trunks one summer. This, by the way, is the subject of a sonnet written for a vocal.media challenge.

The point I am making is that personal and family history imparted as bedtime stories stick and are retained by your children.

Bedtime stories are important. The positive impact of parents reading to their children has been documented many times over the years. Whether the story is Cinderella, The Three Bears, Hansel and Gretel, Horton Hears a Who, Where the Wild Things Are, or Thousands and Thousands of Turkeys, is not as important as is the mere fact that they are being read to. So by all means, parents and caretakers should be reading to their children, both at bedtime and any other time that is convenient. Done right, there will be no conflict with electronic media which is quite capable of delivering an aural or visual rendition of a story.

What electronic media cannot do is tell your children about your personal and family history and answer the questions that those stories elicit.

Bottom line. You should mix in personal stories into your children’s bedtime fare. And though trite, it is OK to start with “Once Upon a Time.”