Sharing the "Stories of My Life" With my Kids

Our kids' bedtime routine has long been my domain, as it were.  My wife homeschools our three kids, so she doesn't get many breaks.  When it's time for bed, I am in charge of getting the two older kids ready, including the tooth brushing, stories, prayers, and tucking them in.  Sometimes, it involves keeping them in their rooms, or getting a snack or drink for my daughter, who seems to require less sleep than the rest of us.

We had gone through a period when they didn't want me to read to them, but then they suddenly showed renewed interest in having "story time" again.  Recently, I decided to forgo reading a book to them - instead, I told them a story from my own childhood.

THEY ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!

Now, when it's getting close to their bedtime, my seven-year-old daughter starts jumping around frenetically, while saying, "I want stories from your life!  Stories from your life!"

Who knew that my life was so entertaining?  I am considering writing a book about my life now, if for no other reason than the fact that my kids love these stories so much.

Last night, we talked about the fact that I used to listen to records all the time when I was their age. 

Yes, records. 

Vinyl records. 

I feel ancient thinking about it now.  At any rate, I explained to them about how the smaller records were 45's and the bigger ones were 33 1/3's because of the rotational speed per minute of each one.  I am not old enough to have listened to 78rpm records.  I put that last sentence in because I know that someone will mention the fact that I am young compared to them, and that they remember the days before television or shoes, or something.  :)

If you're interested, I even wrote a post once on AR about my record collection from when I was 7 or 8 years old:

Transported by Song - A Look Back on My Collection of Records from 1977-1978

Truth be told, I still have at least 200-300 records here in the house, and a functional turntable, although it doesn't get a lot of use these days.

One night a couple of weeks ago, I taught my kids the "Fishheads" song from the late 1970's, which I used to hear while roller skating with my friends.  Does that make me a bad father, or a fun dad?  Either way, we had a good time.  I can actually hear my son singing it RIGHT NOW downstairs!

I have shared a lot of funny and interesting stories with them lately, along with a few that are a little scary or gross (like the reasons for some of the scars that I now have).   

I guess it keeps me on my toes each day, since I am forced to be creative about what we talk about and share at night.  Today, they have both requested that we listen to some records, so I think that's on the agenda for later.

Now, it's time to start on that book.