Do you remember your favourite bedtime story as a child? ?

Never had a bedtime story read or told to me.

My parents were convinced that stories at bedtime woke children up instead of sending them to sleep. I had a vivid imagination, so they may have been right.

Unfortunately, they were also convinced that children up to the age of twelve needed 12 hours sleep a night, so off to bed at seven in the evening and up at seven in the morning.

I have never slept for anything like that length of time in my life, so I made up stories to tell myself from seven to eleven when my parents went to bed and I pretended to be asleeep when they looked in.

Yes, I can remember made up stories mostly from memory. Ladybird books and Thumbelina was a favourite.

My father was in many ways a dead loss as a daddy but he would very occasionally tell me lovely bedtime stories about a brave adventurous girl named 'Juno' who joined the circus and rode a beautiful white horse. I don't remember my mother telling me bedtime stories but she did teach me to read and I have always been an avid reader.

I didn’t have a bedtime story but my dc used to like books with pictures read to him

Alice in Wonderland. A beautifully illustrated well thumbed book which I still have now and have read to children nephews and nieces ?

Remember Mum reading the parable of the Lost Sheep, how the shepherd counted 99 I think, knew one was missing, and searched for it.

I ended up waking and crying, thinking about this poor little lost sheep! Mum had to reassure me that the good shepherd found it, and it was safe with its mum.

?????

My Dad used to tell me stories at bedtime of “Mamma7 and Teddy down by the riverbank”. Teddy and I lived on a houseboat and our friends were all the animals/birds who lived nearby...not one other human or domestic animal! Loved the stories almost as much as I loved Teddy ? We also used to play Teddy the Winner which was a sort of boxing match - strange but true ?

Mum used to make up stories while we sat by her knee, not just at bedtime. She used to include us all in the stories and we were often naughty in them, which we loved. I did the same with my children and grandchildren. I often based the stories on them meeting scary dragons in the woods who turned out to be very kind! I once roared a dragon roar and scared my granddaughter a little too much, she told me to please roar quietly next time.

My Mum never really read to me, except one book which was her favourite- Anne of Green Gables. I remember I took it on holiday when our children were small, we were camping in Brittany I read it to my daughter on the beach and strangely on the back seat of the car at bedtime. My childrens favourite book was called Burglar Bill read by my husband, in fact my niece ( knowing this) bought a new copy for my husband on his last birthday so he could read it to our granddaughter.

Oh Ella the Waterbabies.......I loved that so much!

One of eight children never got read to at bedtime. There were hardly ever books in our house apart from the occasional one at Christmas.
I was a good reader from early on I couldn’t stop reading anything I could get my hands on. I remember getting books in school to take home to read. I was a fast reader the teacher who was horrid didn’t believe I had read it and would test me. I remember my favourite book was The children of Willow farm. I used to make up stories to read to my younger siblings at bedtime.

During the war, my Dad read to me every night, usually from the Beatrix Potter books. The complete collection had been given to me as a baby.

I don't remember having bedtime stories, which is odd because my parents were very keen on books. In fact, my dad was a teacher and taught children with learning difficulties to read. Maybe it was because my sister and I were both fluent readers from a very early age and read to ourselves at bedtime.

I loved being read to, though. Mum used to read to me when I was ill, and my favourites were the Winnie the Pooh stories. When we could persuade Dad to tell us a story, they were always very funny. Happy memories.

dogsmother

Oh Ella the Waterbabies.......I loved that so much!

I had a lovely book of The Waterbabies with beautiful illustrations. Although I still have some of my books from those days, that one is missing

My parents didn’t read to me. My father wasn’t the type and my mum worked until 11 pm each night. I was a voracious reader though.

I love reciting the poem Three Little Kittens when I was young. It was in a children’s anthology I had and I loved it.

No stories, my parents sang to us

Don't think my mum ever told bedtime stories, but I was addicted to all the best Fairy Tales from the moment I could read. The princes, the princesses, the beasts, the lost children, etc etc. My favourites, Hansel and Gretel but even today The Princess and the Pea. I grew up believing I was the Princess who could feel a pea under however many mattresses, I can't remember. And ever since, believe me I can't lie in bed without feeling the very slightest crease in the sheet feeling like a log or a stone. I always wanted to try with a load of mattresses and a pea but of course no one gave me that opportunity. My grandson from about the age of 3 insisted on me opening a page of a big Collins dictionary and reading the words and guessing the meanings. He still loves words, must be the scientist in him.

Mine were Molly mouse goes shopping, it had a little mouse on a ribbon and curtains that lifted up so she could hide
My Gran bought me the secret diary of an Edwardian lady too which I absolutely adored!

I also never had a bedtime story read to me. Bed was for sleep.

My dad would sing 'Show Me the Way to go Home' and 'Run, Rabbit, Run'.
My mum would sing, and also dance, to 'Sur le Pont d'Avignon'.
(Yes, at bedtime.)

We did have stories, too, but I don't remember them.

I don’t remember ever being read to as a child, I did read Heidi over and over to myself.

I don't ever remember being read to. My grandad would sometimes recite poems that he remembered from his own childhood or sing to me in Welsh. My gran just didn't do story telling or reading, she had had a nursemaid for her children so had never done it with them either. And my Mum was always 'too busy for all that nonsense', her words. But I was given lots of books as a child and when I started school she enrolled me at the local library. It was an Aladdin's cave for me. They had story telling sessions there but I was never allowed to stay long enough to listen. Nevertheless I have always loved reading and I particularly enjoy reading children's books, making up for lost time perhaps! I used to read to our children every night and did all the character voices and animations as well. They still remember it. Can only read to our GC when they visit.

My favourite was a story mum made up about a fairy who ruined her dress when she flew into a web but the kind spider wove her a new one. Ahhh

Dad made up stories about a very harsh winter when it was so cold the lady from the fish shop was frozen to her toilet. We loved that one!! ?

I was lucky as we were read to but I always remember my Grandad would just read the pictures and they were elaborate and funny and me and my sister would be rolling around giggling, saying 'Grandad please read it properly!' It never actually occurred to me couldn't read or had limited reading skills until recently.