I recently had an epiphany. I am sure you’ve read these words on here before. It seems I have a lot of those “aha” moments. I was speaking with a co-worker who talked about her family bedtime routine. She has younger children and each night she reads them a story. My kiddos are a bit older and she asked if they were too old for story time.

I paused. Storytime? I thought about it. When was the last time I read them a bedtime story? I had nothing. My youngest is almost 9. She is still within the age for bedtime stories, but yet it’s not what we do. This made me think. Why don’t I do that?

I don’t like fairy tales. Not trying to be Negative Nadia here, but they feel too contrived, too focused on the outcome of happily ever after. I realize the stories I tell my kids, are based in music. I tell them the story behind a song. I tell them the history of my favorite artists and groups. I tell them what certain lyrics mean to me. Often, we listen to songs or look up pictures of the group. Sometimes, we fall deep into the rabbit hole of research. But it’s the time spent together that matters. It is fun!

Here is the best part, they retain the stories and then do their own analysis. Just yesterday, my 14 year old son told me how “New Kid In Town” by the Eagles, personifies fame as a fickle woman. I didn’t tell him that specifically, but he recalled a conversation when we talked about the lyrics, and he came to his own conclusion. It was wonderful to hear his take on it.

My 8 year old chose George Harrison for a school project. For weeks, she studied him, listening to his music. As we assembled her final project, she placed a picture of Pattie Boyd on the front, since she and George were married at one point. For lack of better judgement, I shared the story of how Pattie left George and married his friend, Eric Clapton. I thought it was an interesting tidbit. Apparently, my daughter did too. She shared that story in her presentation at school. It hits different when an eight year talks about how Eric stole his best friend’s girl.

(Makes me think of the Cars’ “My Best Friend’s Girl” sorry, I digress-I will save it for another post)

Overall, her project was well-received, and I was runner-up for “Mother of the Year” with that addition of the scandalous story of a love triangle, as told by a third grader. Such is life, right? In fact, what is life?

I hear a song coming on.

Credit: YouTube