My Childhood: Bedtime Stories

Every Wednesday I'm going to (try to) post a memory from my childhood. As I mentioned before, the reason for this is because I really don't remember all that much, and I'm hoping that by actively thinking about it every week, I'll start to put the pieces together.

Happy Ground Hog day!

I've been trying to think about what to write, but today has been pretty busy, so I haven't come up with anything yet. [Edit: And after realizing it was Ground Hog day, I realized exactly what I should have written about, but I had already written this before I realized what day it was. I think I'll just this idea for next week.]

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I never remember getting bed time stories as a kid. I don't remember my parents reading to me (although I'm sure they did). I don't remember the stereotypical childhood pleadings for "one more chapter!" It's probably because I learned to read when I was 3-4 years old. But I do remember a funny thing my mom and I started when I was a preteen / teen.

I don't remember when this happened, but one day, we decided that we would "alternate" being the adult. From then on, sometimes I would come into her bedroom after she went to bed and tell her a bedtime story. It was a lot of fun because I got to just completely pull a story out of thin air to tell her. I think once or twice I even talked her into coming in and tucking me in.

I remember we would joke about it all the time. She would say something silly and I would take it very literally (not part of the game) and then mom would joke about how it must have been my turn to be the parent. Or we would get into mock fights about it "It was my turn last time, it's definitely your turn!"

My favorite thing was getting to tell her stories, though. Like I said, I loved getting to use my imagination. I would tell her stories about princesses getting rescued from the bad guys (usually some sort of ugly animal which I anthropomorphized for the story). But it was a lot of fun. Mom would lay in bed and I would sit on the edge of it and tell her a story. Then I wold pull up the covers and kiss her goodnight.

As an aside, don't get the idea that this happened every night, or even every week. It was just an occasional fun thing we did.

Weird? Yeah. Had unhealthy psychological undertones? Possibly. A lot of fun? Definitely.

What fun memories do you have with your parents? Did you ever take a turn being the adult?