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?!)
🍪 🍪 🍪
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?'
Love your fails!! We all have them, we just can't share them as well as you!