We never had bedtime stories. My daughter's favourite was The Princess and The Pea. I practically knew it off by heart!
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Do you remember your favourite bedtime story as a child? ?
(114 Posts)We’ve been talking a lot about sleep (or the lack thereof!) this week, but we wanted today to take a trip down memory lane and have a good dose of nostalgia so… what was your favourite bedtime story as a child? If you have grandchildren, is it something you’ve been able to share with them too?
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My favourite was a Ladybird book called 'Ginger's Adventures'. A harrowing tale about a dog happily spending his days on the farm with his friend, Tommy, only to to find himself sent to live in London with a spoilt little girl. Ginger accidently breaks Angelica's china doll and is dumped in the shed in disgrace. He is so homesick for Tommy and his carefree life that he escapes and runs back to the farm. I knew this little book word for word and cried buckets over this poor dog but it was always my favourite story.
My father used to read Rupert to my brother at bedtime. My brother was supposed to go to sleep, but he didn’t. My father, on the other hand, did!
I do remember having Noddy read to me. However my fond memory is of my mum singing " Golden Slumbers" and "Lulla, Lulla , Lulla. "
Don't remember ever having a bedtime story, mum and dad just didn't do it. My DM was of the school of thought that bed was for sleeping, so it was into bed, lights out and "go to sleep". Good job I could read at 5, read every night under the covers in fear of being caught. Even reading in bed was banned in our house.
At 5 I loved the Rupert Bear books, and Minnie Mouse, then progressed to Enid Blyton, Christopher Robin and traditional fairy tales.
Then onto What Katy Did, and Little Women, and Famous Five which I adored. And lots of pony books!
I really loved Thumbelina. I read it to each of my daughters too .
I had four siblings, so I think my mother struggled to get us all to bed. My father worked nights at the pit, so we had to stay downstairs till it was time for him to get up and go to work. Then a mad rush to get five over tired children to bed, in two bedrooms!
I remember my mother reading to us in the daytime, Romany books with Raq the dog were the only books in the house, so were repeated - but still appreciated.
I don’t remember being read to, but starting with the secret seven and moving on I remember developing a life long love for stories. Too many to mention really.
Heidi - Johanna Spyri, Little Women - Louisa May Alcott, The Narnia stories by C.S. Lewis are all stories I have revisited and enjoyed as an adult too.
I never had a story read or told to me. Dad worked late most nights and mum was exhausted probably with 4 and later 5 of us. She did sing to us and I knew lots of nursery rhymes and the popular songs of the time.
I really don't remember there being any books in the house. The only time I remember anyone reading anything was dad and grandpa reading the newspaper. Reading was a complete mystery to me and I failed to learn at infant school. I know that my little sister could read before me and I can remember that upset me. Luckily I had a wonderful teacher in my first year at junior school and she encouraged me and I did eventually make some progress.
We used to go to rummage sales with grandma and she would give me and my sister a few pennies. We bought books and my sister would help me read them. The only new books we had were given to us by Sunday school on prize day. I remember taking one home and telling mum that I couldn't read the title. She laughed and said it's about a little girl called Heidi. Mum sat down and read the story to me.
I had six DC of my own and I made sure I read stories multiple times a day not just at bedtime. Over the years I bought 100s of books. We also went to the library every week.
I remember being read to at school, the Just Stories and Milly Molly Mandy, but not at home. There was also a book about Marco Polo that we all adored, but I’ve never been able to trace it. I’m sure I was read to, but I learnt to read at a very early age, well before I started school, so I think I did my own reading a lot of the time. My mother said nobody ever taught me. I just picked it up.
There was one girl at my little infant school who could hardly read at all, and I used to feel frantic with impatience as she stumbled through her turn at reading round the class. Poor girl, she was probably dyslexic, but nobody had heard of that in 1946.
When I was tiny I adored a book about Baba, a little lamb. I haven’t seen it in over 65 years but just thinking about it today gave me a warm fuzzy feeling of being secure in my daddy’s arms being read a bedtime story.
I knew it by heart and objected if a single word was missed.
I’m off to scour the Internet for it.
Never had a bedtime story from mum & dad always either too tired or both very busy.
On the plus we had an Uncle & Aunt that came to dinner with my parents once a week, they always bought a bag of sweets for my brother and myself, my uncle used to always tell us a bedtime story which he had made up himself.
Sometime’s he would make it into a serial and we would have to wait until his next visit to hear the next installment.
Needless to say he was our favourite uncle and a much loved dad & Grandad to his own family
Milly Molly Mandy is the only book that I can recall Mum reading to me. I loved The Enchanted Wood stories and so too my children and grandchildren. The current publications have had some politically correct editing so I hope Enid Blyton starts being recognised again for her brilliant story telling.
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.
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!! ?
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
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.
I don’t remember ever being read to as a child, I did read Heidi over and over to myself.
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 also never had a bedtime story read to me. Bed was for sleep.
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!
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.
No stories, my parents sang to us
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.
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 
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