A Ritual Worth Repeating

My wife and I have been blessed with six children. The oldest three no longer care about the nighttime ritual of bedtime stories, but my three youngest struggle falling asleep without being read a book or told a well-loved fairy tale. If sharing a book, my daughters enjoy Dr. Seuss, Berenstain Bears, and anything Mathilda. And when telling fairy tales, the girls usually choose one of the following: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood or Jack and the Beanstalk. My kids love stories! And I do as well...

As a child, I enjoyed a couple of different bedtime traditions, especially during the Spring and Summer. After being tucked in, I listened to St. Louis Cardinals Baseball and read my favorite books. While Ozzie Smith turned a stellar double play or Vince Coleman stole another base, I buried my nose in a book, usually a mystery. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series captured my attention, but before reading these sets, I read books about the Happy Hollister's. This family of sleuths solved crimes around their community of Shoreham. Even to this day I occasionally crack open a book from my childhood and read the exploits of these young detectives. My children never latched on to these chapter books from my childhood as the older ones preferred to read Harry Potter or Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The younger ones might find these mysteries intriguing one day, but for now they are content to read or listen to Horton Hears a Who.

For the last several months, the bedtime story of choice has been Jack and the Beanstalk. Whether my retelling of the story does the original justice is debatable. Nonetheless, my daughters request this fairy tale more often than any other. Maybe the thought of magic beans and outlandishly tall bean stalks is the draw. Maybe the thought of a castle and a giant appeals to them time and again. Maybe the goose that lays golden eggs triggers the imagination. Or maybe, just maybe, they enjoy giggling out the giant's line, "Fe Fi Fo Fum...I smell the blood of an Englishman."

Bedtime stories set the stage for a good night's sleep. My daughters find the nightly ritual relaxing. In fact, seldom do they drift off to sleep without first being transported to an imaginary world of wonder. There is something soothing about the whole process. I dim the lights, stretch out on one of the twin beds and utilizing my best late night radio, soothing deejay voice, I launch into a story that's been told hundreds of times. Often I find my eyes growing heavy and occasionally one of the littles nudges me to focus on the important task at hand...telling the bedtime story.

It's interesting. As a story teller at heart, I find that I seldom tell the story the same way twice. I never change the familiar conclusion to the tale, but on occasion I take liberties with the body of the narrative, ending up at the expected, "And they lived happily ever after." For instance, I've been known to tie the Big Bad Wolf of Little Red Riding Hood with the same offending wolf in the Three Little Pigs. On occasion I might blend the stories together checking to see if my girls' are paying attention. When I delve from the plot line too much, they squeal, "Daddy, you're doing it wrong." And then they help me tell the story correctly.

As my kids grow older, I dread the day when the bedtime stories and books will no longer be a necessity for drifting off to sleep. There's something special about sharing a story with a child, something that does the heart good. In fact, I think the bedtime story is as important to the parent as it is the child. Why? Because, at the end of each day we can sign off with the words, "And they lived happily ever after."

Sweet Dreams. Good Night.