family

One of the questionable benefits of writing a blog is that your children might read it.  Both of my grown daughters read mine and each has commented, “I never knew you did that” or “at last I know what you’re thinking.”   I’m sure I have told them some of these stories and they just weren’t listening.

I’ve been thinking a lot about stories lately and just finished a three part post on stories for our school blog, (Click the Stepping Stone Partners button on the right if you want to read them,)  With the decline of family dinner has come a decline in family story sharing.

As parents we hesitate to tell some of our most interesting stories to our children because the details are too embarrassing to us.  I know that my father spent a night in the New Haven jail, but I have no facts about the foolishness that got him there.

My children know I went to many Peace Marches including several in Washington.  They don’t have details either. Yet we each come from a family culture as well as a national culture and that culture is transferred by story. One of the first stories children learn to tell about themselves is about how things are don’t differently at their friends house.  My kids at least argued differently and better.

Many parents read to their children.  I read to mine and now to theirs, but much more important is telling them about our lives–even when they are bored.  They need to know they come from people with stories and that they will become people with stories.

Tagged as: blogs, Kids and Teens, narative, Washington

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