I read a touching article in the paper this week about a mum's feelings when her daughter called time on bedtime stories read by mum and dad.
The mother writes in the Telegraph:
My husband, Carl, has also been summarily dismissed. “I’m big enough to read to myself,” she declared as she climbed into bed and handed him a battered edition of Lemony Snicket’s final offering the other evening. “When we’ve finished this I don’t want you to read to me anymore either.”
Gulp. It twanged at my heart strings because I still read to my children, who are 8 and 9, and neither of them show any signs of wanting that to stop any time soon.
Admittedly I've been so busy of late that 'no bedtime stories!' has been uttered a bit too readily as punishment for messing around at the dinner table when work deadlines have made my evening hours seem scarily short, but I can tell from my kids' reactions on those occasions that having me read them a bedtime story is very much still something they look forward to each night.
And long may that continue.
I don't know how I'll feel if my kids suddenly decide they're too old for me to read to them. I've sort of always assumed we'll just keep up this nightly tradition forever but - maybe I'm deluded.
Do you plan on reading bedtime stories until your kids demand that you stop?
And if you've got older children, at what age did they sack you as the official story-teller at bedtime?
And while we're on the subject, what's your all-time favourite book for bedtimes stories with your children?
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