3 ms·
Absolutely no offense intended here, but I keep hearing about "bedtime stories" lately and I have a few questions since I am not a parent and my parents did not
by sublinear 4y ago
Absolutely no offense intended here, but I keep hearing about "bedtime stories" lately and I have a few questions since I am not a parent and my parents did not do this.
Is this a useful parenting technique or just a cute tradition? What problem(s) does it solve? If it's just trying to get the kids to fall asleep is it as effective as tiring them out some other way (games, exercise, big dinner, etc.)?
Is the goal to just steer their dreams somewhere peaceful? Wouldn't a story be less effective than just tucking them in and telling them words of affirmation? I would think there's too many things for them to worry about in a story.
As for literacy and imagination, I was given books and toys and stuff so idk... kind of drawing a blank on the value of this.
- docdeek 4y agoFor me (2 kids, 1 under 4 years getting stories before bed each night) a big part of it is having a routine. Into bed, lie down, covers on, a few minutes of storytelling, calm child, kiss good night. The story is part of the routine and the routine helps. The storytelling is a five minute period of not jumping around, lying still, relaxing - an integral part of getting the little one into a sleeping mood.
- sublinear 4y agoThanks for clarifying. I never considered that and it might explain why I prefer ad-hoc planning. Growing up we didn't really have a routine around bed. If we fell asleep before them it would have been on the couch or some other random place around the house. My parents would just scoop us up as they made their way to their bed and dump us in our beds.