Why Bedtime Stories Matter More Than You Think
I did not set out to write a children's book.
Felix the Fox was born during a 3am feed with my youngest, in that particular kind of exhausted delirium that only new parents really understand. I needed something to keep myself awake. I needed something to fill the silence. And so I started making up a story about a fox who lived in an enchanted forest and loved to make new friends.
My child, being roughly six weeks old at the time, was entirely unaware of this. But I kept going anyway.
What I did not expect was how much those stories would come to mean to me. Or how much research I would later stumble across suggesting that what felt like an instinct — telling stories to a baby who couldn't yet understand them — was actually something rather important.
I want to be clear that I am not a child development specialist. What follows is a mixture of my personal experience and some things I have found genuinely interesting in the research, none of which should be taken as clinical advice.
With that said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics notes in its formal literacy policy that reading aloud to children from infancy supports early language development. Research cited by BookTrust — the UK's largest children's reading charity — suggests that children who are read to regularly have larger vocabularies and stronger early reading skills than those who are not.
But in my opinion, the most interesting thing about bedtime stories is not what they do for literacy. It is what they do for connection.
There is something about the ritual of a story — the same characters, the same world, the familiar arc of a narrative — that creates a sense of safety and continuity for children. In my own experience as a dad, bedtime stories were one of the few moments in a busy day where everything else stopped, and it was just us. No screens. No noise. Just a voice, a story, and a small person getting sleepy.
I think children remember that feeling long after they have forgotten the plot.
I also think — and this is entirely my own view — that making up stories on the spot, rather than always reading from a book, has its own particular magic. It is imperfect. It is spontaneous. The fox might suddenly decide to go on an adventure that makes absolutely no narrative sense. And children, in my experience, find this both hilarious and deeply comforting. Because it is real. It is theirs. It happened just for them, in that moment, and it will never happen in quite the same way again.
If you have ever found yourself making up stories for a child and wondered whether you are doing it right, in my opinion, the fact that you are doing it at all is what matters most.
Felix the Fox and his forest friends are waiting in The Reading Corner at keithgumbrell.co.uk — 35 bedtime stories for little ones aged 0-5, available on Amazon for 77p or free with Kindle Unlimited.
This blog reflects my personal views only and is not intended as clinical or professional advice. If you are concerned about your child's development, please speak to your GP or health visitor.
