'Fail'tales not fairytales
- Mel Schmitz
- May 3, 2023
- 2 min read
My daughter: Tell me a story from your life, mama. Make it a good one.
Me: What do you mean when you say a 'good one' darling?
My daughter: An exciting one, Mama! Like something where you got into trouble. Or made some terrible mistake you had to fix. Or something funny...or a story with all three...
Me: ???!!! 🙄😳🤯Wait a minute. Mama needs to think....(scrambling to think of a developmentally appropriate fail story suitable for 8 year old ears)
My daughter: (most helpfully)Bonus points if you can make me laugh also, Mama!
Me: (crap, there's a scorecard?!)
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Here are some of my thoughts on the benefits and reasons my kids seem to want to hear my 'fail' stories....
✅it's easier to connect with an imperfect human, so making sure I'm not on any parenting pedestals helps my kid connect with 'real Mel'.
✅it's good for me to remember that I made a zillion mistakes and lived to tell the tale....(deep breaths, my kids will too).
✅retelling my old narratives might help me rediscover long forgotten stores of resourcefulness and resilience or see parallels to something I'm currently dealing with. We all need this sometimes right?!
✅it surprisingly also gives my kids chances to question why I did certain things the way I did and tell me what THEY would have done...(Mine seem to especially love this):
Like the time I was 13 and a teacher fainted in our class. It was my bright spark idea to remove her constricting sari and sprinkle her with water... Spoiler alert: we did not revive her in this way...AND there was hell to pay for trying #girlschooladventures
Are your little humans also preoccupied with your fail stories? How do they 'give you advice?'
