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?

I used to do this with our 3 DDs when they were children. I just used to make up stories about them doing fairly ordanairy stuff or sometimes going on a magic journey. I loved it although they did sometimes ask for a story I had told them a few days before

My ds used to ask for a "story from your mouth". I dreaded it. Then I started just to tell her the story of our day. She loved it. "Once there was a little girl called X. She woke up at 7.00, and her mummy helper her to get dressed in.....then she went downstairs and had Y for breakfast" .....and so on and so on

Just say that is Daddy's special thing! Could yours be to sing a verse of a song together instead? We used to do cockles and mussels or a nursery rhyme. Much easier!

I feel your pain - had this for years and years with DS1 - never occurred to me once until the DTs arrived 5 years later that I could simply pass off existing tales as my own #slowlearner

We had a series of the Adventures of Colin the Carrot. Again, it was DH more than me but I can whip up a Colin story if necessary.

I think it started when we found ourselves without a book at bedtime (possibly an unexpected hospital admission - there were some of those), but I have a distinct and very fond memory of DS waking up in the night while camping once, and wanting a story to settle down again. As it was obviously not a time to get a book out, Dh started off very sleepily with a big sigh "once there was a vegetable who was both round...... and triangular", and DS went "Colin!" then went off to sleep.

Colin got blasted into space once too. It's odd how often this happens to these imaginary characters.

I think it's lovely, enjoy it while it lasts! We have a dog and my two used to ask for stories about her. So I used to make up all sorts of stories about adventures with the dog and the kids. Usually they were happy if it involved superheroes as well! You can adapt stories you know if you're struggling for ideas.

You don’t have to do this. I mean, there’s more than enough oughts and shoulds around parenting as it is. I don’t see any reason for adding improv to the (seemingly never-ending) list.

I’d guess that, at 2.5 years old, she isn’t really understanding the difference between a book story and an improv story. But she’s old enough to recognise that mummy and daddy do bedtime somewhat differently.

Signing in to this thread... We have "pink elephant" stories in this house. The longest went on for about a month, and featured Binky Pinke-Elephant, spitfire ace. Shot down over France, escaped from PoW camp to Switzerland where he got embroiled in a spy plot involving stolen documents from the American Embassy which the Nazis were trying to use to prevent the US entering the war. He and his glamourous elephantine lady-friend then had to escape with the documents across Vichy France, over the Pyrenees, through Spain and on to Portugal, then boat from Lisbon to Cork, then across the Irish Sea back to Britain. I even got to the stage of having to research the best place to cross the Pyrenees...

Loving this thread. Thought it would be something to do with mental health issues!! So many ideas all bursting with unbearable cuteness.

My son used to ask for 'story from your mouth' and then I would open my mouth and he would pretend to take a story out of my mouth. It is difficult to keep churning out stories though. Good luck OP. You sound like a wonderful mum.

having to research the best place to cross the Pyrenees... I learned quite a lot more science and geography during our giant submarine phase.

This thread is heartwarming - so many parents investing so much love in their children.

This is Daddy's job in our house. I can do wild flights of fantasy when they come up naturally in conversation, but under pressure to make up a story my head is completely empty. I read stories in books, and if DH is out we read extra stories, and DD just has to deal with it. DH, on the other hand, couldn't have an extended conversation about 'what if we're saying something really rude by accident when we miaow at the cats' but can go on for hours about a fantasy land in which Dorothy and
Toto meet Gandalf and Luke Skywalker on a flight to the moon...

You need to use the phrase 'no, that's daddy's thing. Mummy doesn't do that' Applies here to bouncing on the trampoline, magic and motorbike videos.

But actually, they are happy with such a simple story! I started once on a long car journey. Everyone was bored, emotional and we were just half an hour away from home. I did a little story and acted out a 'play' with the toys. It was soooo very dull, but the kids loved it! Just talk about going to the shops / swimming etc, and certainly your story doesn't need to have a beginning, middle and end.

My Dad used to make up stories for us. The ones I remember most were when we were out for the day and we had to sit still for half an hour after a picnic lunch before we were allowed to rush off and play/swim whatever.

He used to ask us each (4 children) for something that we wanted to feature in the story, and would then make up something to fit the requests. I don't remember any of the stories now, but I used to love them.

I tried to do something similar when my children were young, but I was hopeless at it.

Similar to the story cubes that a PP suggested, DS is absolutely obsessed with his story cards , though we have the adventure ones, we could play with them for hours, but whenever you get a reasonable mix about knights and castles, bloody aliens appear. It's bloody hard to include aliens in an Arthurian style tale!

Mind, DS is wildly imaginative in general and was telling today me how he asked the ants at nursery to carry a boy he knocked over.

cards.

These always remind me how Jim Butcher came up with his Codex Alera novels which was basically a dare- he had to include Ancient Romans and Pokemon if I remember correctly.

I do this with my DC sometimes but I make them choose who the story's about, where it is & one thing that happens. It makes it easier if I don't have to do all the imagining!

I prefer to make up my own! Whenever I read, I start falling asleep! I make up long stories about the same characters.....small creatures which live in our local stream and around our village. They're ridiculous and DD2 loves them!

This thread is lovely. I’m going to tell my kids about the ‘poor cheese’ tomorrow, they will love hearing about it!
I once attempted a story from my head about a hedgehog that got stuck down a hole. It went on for about an hour and he still hadn’t got out of the hole by the end so I tried to finish the story the next night...and didn’t! Then I just kept making excuses for not doing the story again. Every few months that hedgehog gets mentioned by one of my children. He has been stuck down the hole for over five years now. I really should make up an ending for his story!
We have been doing Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories recently. My partner started us off with one and the kids started doing it when we’re all in the car. I don’t try to make these up as I can’t be seen to have storytelling skills and I worry I would then get asked to finish the hedgehog story. The adventures start off well, with interesting choices and characters, but to be honest they all end the same way - in chaos and poo jokes

I used to love making up stories - until my child started asking for the same story again!! And then getting upset when it wasn't the same!

I do a 'story from my head' (fabulous phrase by the way) every night for my littlest one - they are honestly dreadful but he loves them!

As a pp mentioned, I ask him who he wants to feature and any special things he'd like me to include. It always includes Daddy and the dog and them rescuing someone or having an amazing experience like parachuting. He doesn't care that I can't tell a good story, he just wants to to think about exciting stuff for a while and delay bedtime some more.

I had an ongoing one about a little grey pony called Monty who used to dream about leaving his field and his friends to have adventures. He joined a circus, he pulled a rag and bone cart, he gave rides at the seaside, lots of things but after every adventure he decided he was better off at home in his field...until the next night. Feel free to use,,,

A few years ago, I made up a story about a naughty boy going to a land made of sweets and starting to eat everything there so he gets put in prison, and has to master super hard levels of candy crush to escape. Ds1 is nearly 10 and sometimes he still asks me to do a candy crush story!

I do this and I struggle! I normally try to remix a story that he isn't familiar with or a take bits from other stories.
Another thing that I started doing to make it easier, is tell the story together - so I say a couple lines and leave a pause and he says the next line of what happened - that's actually quite fun as he's only four and comes out with very random stuff!

My dad used to make a great fanfare, crack his fingers, snuggle up, clear his throat and...

‘Once upon a time, they lived happily ever after. The end’

Kiss, light switch, gone.

This is a rod my DH made for his own back. Toothbrushing story. He's told one pretty much every night for about three years now. On the rare occasions I'm on duty I just read a story. My bedtime routine with DC is about half an hour shorter than DH's, so unsurprisingly he's picked to do it most days