To wish dh had never invented "story from your head"

[pilkers]

Dd is 2.5, a while back she went through a phase of playing up at bedtime and to settle her dh would go back in and tell her a "story from his head", she loved this for some reason and now it's become part of her bedtime routine, oh AND she wants one for her nap. I'm totally shit at them and start panicking when I'm reading her book cos I know "story from my head" is coming up. What will it be this time? Another classic about finding a lost cat and taking it back to its owner? That crap one about the fairies that rambled on too long? That frankly shit one about baking a cake?

Agh. I love reading her bedtime story but I long for the day I put her in her cot and she doesn't ask me sweetly for "story from your head now?".

Is this a tradition in anyone else's household? Do you struggle for inspiration or am I just an unimaginative old bag?

AIBU to wish dh had never started the whole bloody tradition?

My mum did this with dd1 - I curse the day she did now. The series has been going on years now & dd2 makes me change other books to these characters.
The 2 girls were sisters but then became twins and miraculously seem to do really similar things to our family😂😂😂

Yep, we do "a story from inside your head". I love those quiet cuddles in the dark. I produce a mixed bag from fantastical to very mundane.

DS likes all characters to have a name and is quite particular. If he doesn't approve they get renamed something like "flumproft". You have to remember these non-names and if you rack up a few characters it can get a bit challenging.

I ask him for a story from inside his head in return. Some nights he refuses but some nights I get treated to toddler fantasy.

I love this part of the day.

Aw my dad used to do this for me. He'd start off reading the real story then wander off into his own version. Usually ended in a punch up between Noddy and Big Ears. I loved it.

I usually try to make them entertaining for myself. My 8 yr old still requests made up stories, the sillier the better.
Our last one involved a girl waking up to find her nose was a sausage and had to hide all day from the seagulls that wanted to peck it off.

When I was little, we used to ask our DF to "tell us a story out your mouth". He was absolutely awesome at them - had an entire saga about a little girl's magical adventures with a genie, which always ended with her going home, putting on her pyjamas, drinking cocoa and going to bed.

I was bought up by my dad telling me stories as he wasn't a confidant 'read out aloud' sort of person and I often carry on this tradition with my elder granddaughter. I just adapt a situation which has happened in her life recently or something from the news and I try and incorporate a moral theme. She loves to be placed as a main character.

So, for instance, recently she had seen the Greatest Showman film and then her parents took her to a real circus so my story was about her wanting to join the circus. We talked about what sort of job she would like to do and the training it would involve as she likes to make suggestions as to how the story will proceed....and the moral of the story was - you have to start at the bottom ( i.e. shovelling elephant dung!) and work your way to the top (ringmaster).

It's a great learning tool as well and she is one of the best in her class at writing stories as she is so imaginative and uses wonderful adjectives in her writings. She's just had her 7th birthday.

So come on, mums and dads, your children's minds are as important to feed as their stomachs and they really won't care if they hear the same 'fairy lost her shoes/wings/hairclip etc. in the garden' type of story over and over again. It's your attention they want.

I used to use the child's name and tell a story based on books I'd read as a child like the faraway tree and the different lands at the top. They loved it.

My mum used to tell these amazing stories from her head when I was small. Found out from my husband (told him the main characters and setting of the story) that she’d been ripping a tv series off as her own work

My dad was and is brilliant at this. He had a raft of stories about Fergie, the giant of Newmarket on Fergus, and his adventures and misadventures.

Luckily not a regular thing in our house, but when requested I do a story about a boy who coincidentally has the same name as my son and include lots of wish fulfilment - he’s an astronaut, or he’s a famous motorbike racer. I know your daughter is 2 so that’s not totally applicable but could ‘Lucy’ meet Iggle Piggle / Fireman Sam / Peppa Pig (whoever she likes) and have an adventure together.

My dad did this for me. I loved it. He made up fixed characters (a donkey & pony) & has variations each night. It always started/ended with the same lines that changed a bit each day (so the donkey always woke up, climbed down from his bunk, opened his curtains and it was a..... pause ... rainy/snowy/sunny etc day

Always ended in the same way as well with a bedtime snack which varies a bit in terms of number of carrots.

I loved the same bits but that prob made it easier for him.

I did this with DS1, but after while he 'took over' and the stories always had to be about HIM. And he had to fly. He would start them thus; "There was a boy named 'DS1' and he could fly. What happened next Mummy?".

I learnt my lesson and DS2 got books read to him exclusively.

Mine requests “boring” stories. Her favourite is about some cheese that sat and sat and sat until it matured and then there was a long drawn out and very boring series of events until If was made into a sandwich, which sat and sat and sat in a fridge in a train station. She often requests “the story about that poor cheese”.

She also likes stories featuring witches and banshees but not as much as that poor cheese.

Bev that was exactly what I was thinking of.

My grandad used to do this. This will completely out me if any of my family are one here, but he had two characters called "One" and "Oh" who had adventures in "The Land of Numbers." These adventures ranged from very exciting to quite boring days when all they did was go to school
and perhaps get into mischief but I lived for these stories and over time we built a very real world with lots of other characters in our land of numbers and it went on for years.

I loved it when my grandad put me to bed as he would read to me and then tell me a "One and Oh" story through the bathroom door whilst I was having a wee and cleaning my teeth. When this was done we would call down to my gran through a series of complicated call signal questions and answers which meant it was time for her to come up and tuck me in before wishing me goodnight in Afrikaans.

Still some of my happiest childhood memories.

My husband managed to start a "disease of the day" with our youngest at one point (when he was a bit older and started to grow out of stories earlier than he might have done). So if he was away or late I'd get asked for one too. (admittedly we both have medical degrees, although neither of us practice clinically any more).

Ahh, dd loves her "just pretend" stories! Mine often link to something she's done or will be doing soon (eg the princess who went to the dentist) which I've found not only satisfies her, but can be useful to reassure/prepare/teach if needed. Although it gets complicated when partway through she interjects with things like "and then the dancing aliens arrived!"
They don't need to be "good", they just enjoy the attention!

My husband introduced 'made up stories' His are fab. Mine are rubbish and I often get interrupted halfway through and told to 'do a funny one like daddy'. You're not alone in hating them!

My son goes through phases of wanting this. He does give me a character list though - usually Batman and Robin. I usually have a stock story of Batman going for a pizza/holiday/beach/skiing and finding no pizza/airplane/sand or snow because a naughty villain eg Joker/Sandman/Penguin etc has stolen them. He saves the day.

We do this almost every night - twice! we find it fun and my daughter add things into the story too.

This thread has made me giggle because I soooo identify!

I did this with ds. It was great when I first hit on that 'bright' idea; we had the series about the detective cat (inspired by Macavity) whose tail could spin like helicopter rotor blades, and the series about the huge submarine which caused a tsunami in one 'chapter'. But it got to be such a drag, I felt like my imagination was wrung bone dry by the time he let me stop

I think I put myself under far too much pressure to be imaginative and entertaining, tbh. So many tales told in small children's books are mundane in the extreme (Yes Maisy I'm looking at you...)

Yep I love a story ctom my head, DD used to love them. DS is mr grumpy I do not get to bore him.

My Mam was great at them We always wondered how the names of the characters were similar to people we knew. It kept them in memory.

We do “story from your head” but we flip it - DS tells us the story and we write it down , then I read it back to him and then he has his Story Folder (just a plain folder he has decorated !) and we put his stories in there .

Now am worried he feels like this just before bedtime!!

This is one of his stories this week