There’s nothing quite as universal as the bedtime story and its part of the wind-down routine for millions of children around the world. And one study shows that a surprising number of parents read to stories to their kids way past the preschool years. A recent study commission by Wonderbly revealed some interesting results.
Of 2000 parents surveyed, 1 out of every 10 said they have read to their children at bedtime until age 13 or even older. Only 11% said they stopped by age 4. And 15% of parents said they started reading to their babies in utero. 1/5 said they’d been reading to their littles since babyhood.
86% of parents said they love putting their kids to bed and reading or telling a story, with 36% saying it’s the most quality time they get with them all day. 8 out of 10 parents cited bedtime routines as the best part of being a parent.
And 3 in 4 parents said they wished they could NEVER stop telling their kiddos stories, with 23% actually planning to never stop.
3 in 10 parents cited loving storytime as a chance to be creative and use their imaginations.
Why read to your kids? While we know that modeling behavior like reading to, with and in front of kids fosters early literacy, there are other benefits, for parents and kids alike. Bedtime and the ritual story can be a time to connect, decompress from the day. And your kids are never too old for that.
“Storytime not only fosters a wonderful closeness but also encourages conversation and helps kids to relax,” said David Cadji-Newby, author and creative director at Wonderbly.
It also takes the top of the poll for kids as well (45%), ahead of picking out pajamas (18%) and watching TV (26%).
It might surprise most people to know that through most of human history we were hunter-gatherers. For tens of thousands of years we travelled in small bands of “Sapiens,” foraging for our food.
In fact, it wasn’t until the “Agricultural Revolution” about 12,000 years ago that we decided to settle down and became farmers instead of travelers.
History calls this decision “progress,” but I think it was a questionable call. Here’s why we were better off as hunter-gatherers:
We were healthier
Imagine a giant open-air health club with a kick-ass cafe and no parking issues. You may be surprised to learn that such a place exists, and it’s called, “nature.”
It’s true, and for thousands of years we used to travel through “nature” unencumbered; like a bunch of hipster chefs out foraging food for their trendy gastro-pubs.
As hunter-gatherers, we were usually on the move, and didn’t stay in one place for more than a few days or weeks. Our travel was dictated largely by the annual migration of animals and the seasonal growth cycles of plants.
We ate whatever we could forage, and that wide variety of foods resulted in a very nutritious diet. Typical hunter-gatherer meals might have included a diversity of fruits, vegetables, edible roots, nuts, meat and fish. (Yes, it was the “original” paleo diet!)
All that nutritious, low-carb food combined with hours of “foraging” exercise each day meant that our ancestors were in tremendous shape, and the obesity rate was probably zero.
Not only did they probably look like (hairy?) CrossFit athletes, but they were really smart too!
We were smarter
You might scoff at the idea that people were smarter 20k years before Siri and Alexa, but hear me out.
All that foraging made us a lot smarter. Can you imagine the breadth of knowledge it would have required to be a successful hunter-gatherer? Just to survive you’d need an extensive, hands-on education in biology, botany, geography, and meteorology.
Hunter-gatherers were true, “Renaissance men” (and women!), with each person learning dozens of practical skills like making tools and weapons, navigating, mending clothes, starting fires, and tracking animals.
In today’s society, most of us specialize in one niche area and depend on the narrow skills of many others to survive. I mean, how much do you really need to know about the earth to sell insurance or design websites?
Sure, as a society we’ve never been collectively “smarter” and more “advanced” than we are today, but as individuals I say we were in our prime as hunter-gatherers.
We were happier
When we put down roots and became farmers, an interesting thing happened. We stopped living in the present, and started worrying about the future.
Thoughts of foraging for our next meal turned to anxiety about harvests months or even years in the future. We worked harder and acquired more possessions, but we fretted that we might lose them if a single crop failed.
When we stopped traveling, we put ourselves on a road to nowhere. Like Sisyphus, we began perpetually rolling a boulder uphill, only to watch it roll back down again.
To this day it seems like the more we chase “progress,” the more despondent we become. If things have improved so much, why are we so damned depressed?
OK, I’m “cherry-picking” some facts (that’s a little “foraging” pun for you!)
Could I really live in a world that had sabre-tooth tigers, but no flushable-toilets?
Maybe not, but I can’t help think we have a lot to learn from our foraging ancestors. Lately even peanuts and gluten seem to be telling us that we’re doing something wrong, so maybe we should listen.
When we were hunter-gatherers we didn’t have to contemplate our right to “the pursuit of happiness,” because it seems we had already found happiness in the pursuit!
I'm Missy, a mother of three and a middle school drama teacher at a private school. I'm obsessed with my Vizsla (dog), traveling, and the musical Hamilton. I also enjoy writing and sharing fun parenting stories, which is what brought me here.
The one word that I have heard repeatedly from friends and family as they describe their emotional state during this difficult time is “helpless.” As we cope with the various consequences of the spread of the Coronavirus, we are all grappling with the feeling of a loss of control.
For young children, that feeling may be magnified as they react to school closings, social isolation, and a myriad of other changes to their daily lives. Add in the stress of witnessing their parents struggle with this “new normal,” and if asked, they too might use the word “helpless” to describe their emotional state.
While many things are unknown about the spread of this disease, we do know that wearing a mask, to protect ourselves and others from infection, is the number one action that we can take.
Last spring, when some restrictions were lifted for local businesses, we took my then three and a half-year-old granddaughter to the neighborhood shoe store to get new sneakers. Before venturing out, it was explained to her that she needed to wear a mask—just like her mom and grandmother—so that we could stay safe from germs. It was also emphasized that while staying safe ourselves, we could also be “helpers” to keep others safe as well. And without much resistance, she complied.
When we explain to children that they too have a role to play in stopping the spread of the disease by wearing a mask, this protects them physically but also psychologically. Giving them a concrete action to perform helps to eliminate or minimize their feelings of helplessness. It lets them know that even though COVID-19 is causing problems, there is, in fact, something that we can do about it. And children love feeling that they are part of a solution; it appeals to their natural instincts for optimism and altruism while helping to reduce their anxiety.
These are tough times for all of us, especially kids. While it may seem like a small thing, mask-wearing is vital in stopping the spread of infection while at the same time providing children with some semblance of control. That’s a good thing.
I am a parent and grandparent with over four decades of experience in early childhood education. I share my passion, wisdom and experience, with parents and the people who care for and about children at Little Folks Big Questions, where we're out to answer the questions parents face in today's world.
When the phased reopening of Walt Disney World starts on Jul. 11, the parks will look a lot different than a few months ago. In an effort to keep park guests safe, follow health and safety guidelines and restart the magic, Disney has made some big changes to ticket sales, hotel reservations, dining and fast passes––and we’ve got all the details. Keep scrolling so you’re in-the-know before heading to Florida.
New Ticket Sales and Hotel Reservations
Walt Disney World/Matt Stroshane
Disney parks have halted all new ticket sales for now. If you've already purchased a ticket or are an Annual Passholder, you will be able to make a reservation before Disney releases new tickets. This will be done through the new theme park reservation system on DisneyWorld.com.
In addition, all Disney Resort hotel reservations have also been temporarily paused. Disney is currently in the process of contacting theme park and hotel guests to discuss options, which can include refunds.
Both park and hotels will be limited in attendance.
Dining and Experiences
Disney Parks
Due to the parks limiting capacity, all existing dining reservations, Disney dining plans and bookings for other experiences have been canceled. As the phased reopening approaches, the parks will reopen both the dining and experiences with smaller numbers, and will shift to a 60-day booking window (down from the former 180-day window).
To further reinforce physical distancing, most restaurants and behind the scenes tours will be largely reduced in capacity.
FastPass+ and Extra Magic Hours
Laura Green
Due to the necessity of physical distancing, all extra queue spacing will be utilized, and the FastPass+ service will be suspended. Guests with existing selections will have their FastPass+ canceled. Additionally, Disney is stopping all Extra Magic Hours for now.
With a little more than one month until the phased reopening begins, there is plenty of time for changes to the parks current updates. Stay tuned, and don’t lose the magic!
The first rule of baby sleep is you DO NOT talk about baby sleep.
The minute you talk about baby sleep, baby will CHANGE HOW SHE SLEEPS. I bragged to ONE person—not even a parent, just a normal person—that my daughter had been sleeping eleven hours straight at night…and she promptly stopped. She also, just for fun, stopped with the blissful and surprising two hour morning naps and now just does an hour which is exactly enough time for me to fall asleep or start something fun or…clean, I guess, but not enough time really to have any free time or really do anything at all. Basically, I have enough time to read the internet and then she’s up and giggling.
Look at me breaking the first rule again already.
If she had her way, her ladyship would be held all the time when she sleeps…which is precious, of course, but we want to instill good habits and not suffocate her with our pillows by accident and whatnot, so we have the following “sleep routine” (the internet says it’s very important to have a sleep routine) in place:
1. Boo looks tired.
2. Feed Boo boobs
3. Snuggle Boo with binky
4. Remove binky and continue snuggling
5. Try to put down Boo (pretend you’re going to put her to sleep on her back but gently encourage her to roll onto her stomach where she immediately takes on “child’s pose” with her baby booty in the air. Pat pat booty and run away silently)
6. Half the time Boo wakes up crying
7. Repeat previous steps
8. If not successful, turn on the projector that plays classical music and walk away. She usually stops crying and puts herself to sleep in under three minutes.
9. If not, call in Dada who is always successful in under ten minutes. If he is not home or willing, start over.
10. She will be asleep within five minutes to three hours and will stay asleep for one to eleven hours.
Did you know that babies aren’t consistent? Or, rather, mine isn’t. I’m sure there are clockwork babies out there who do everything the same all the time and you can just live your life predictably and I’m sure your house is also very clean and you also work full-time saving people’s lives or money or something.
During the day, she’s nearly a person, lately. She makes yummy noises when she eats people food and can clap her hands and crawl and stand up and pet (grab) the kitty. She’s no longer merely a squish of tears and poop. For funsies, we looked up her horoscope and, I gotta say, she is pretty much living up to it as much as a baby can. Aries are independent, driven, energetic, aggressive. If you ever get the chance to witness Boo versus the cat, you will agree.
But at night, The Creature emerges. I’m not saying The Creature is bad, it’s just, not quite a person. Ever since she was a tiny squish, nighttime Boo has been more bug than human. When she was little, she had a green, Velcro swaddle that made her look just exactly like a larva. And that’s what she was: squirmy body and a mouth, sucking the life force from me to sustain her. Her night time cry is not like that of a day time baby. It’s fetus-like, impulsive, and unemotional. It’s only id. Its only want: hold me, feed me, I feel alone, make me feel less alone. The Creature doesn’t know she’s a person. The Creature still thinks she and I are the same person.
The Creature is the cutest and the sweetest. She is all mouth, no eyes. Give her the binky and she immediately is subdued. Give her the nook of my arm, and she shakes her head into it and her whole body relaxes. Her little squish face is the most placid thing you’ll ever see. Such a different face from that of the person emerging in the day time. In the day time, she’s expressive and opinionated and not a little bit judge-y. At night, she’s soft eyes, petal lips slightly parted.
The Creature does not care about my emotions or needs and I can’t blame her. She doesn’t care that it’s inconvenient for me to sit upright, nuzzling her at all hours. The Creature requires sleep. The Creature does not find things funny, only cold or scary or displeasing or, eventually, acceptable.
Sometimes I feel embittered toward The Creature because she occasionally sprouts a tooth and that means she must be held at all times. Then I tell myself, stop. Look at this little thing. Soon she will change into something else entirely. The larva will hatch or whatever bugs do, and she will be her own person in both the day and night. She won’t reach for you with desperation, her eyes pinched tight, knowing you’re there because you’re always there, waiting to be received in your arms. Soon she will grow up.
The greatest wish you can wish for your kid is that they’ll grow up. As much as we want to plead with them to stay little, you want them to move on with their lives, to be free, to develop new skills and get big and tall, to fly like a beautiful butterfly or some cliché like that.
Laura Wheatman Hill lives in Portland, Oregon with her dentist and two children. She blogs about parenting, writes about everything, and teaches English and drama when not living in an apocalyptic dystopia. Her work has appeared on Sammiches and Psych Meds, Her View From Home, Scary Mommy, and Motherwell.
For some reason pregnant people ask me for advice on newborns. I don’t know why because I hate newborns (I mean—I love my children more than life itself—they know this and exploit my weakness and try to kill me with sleep deprivation torture and boob infections.)
My advice is this and it sucks because it’s not advice: The weirdest thing about having a baby is not that a human lives in your house who didn’t exist last year, it’s BOOBS. Boobs rule your life.
NOW LET ME BE CLEAR: Your baby needs food to live and if that food is formula, PLEASE FEED YOUR BABY AND DON’T FEEL BAD ABOUT IT. OMG staaaaaaaap with the mom-shaming, boob tyrants (I’m looking at you, Le Leche League).
Either way, for the first week at least, your boobs rule your life.
You will feel your feelings in your boobs.
You will feel your baby’s feelings in your boobs.
You will feel the f*cking weather in your boobs.
Your boobs own you.
My boobs took ownership a few short years ago on March 22 at about 1 a.m. when a nurse put the girl baby on me and she bit me so hard my nipple folded in half (bad pronoun. The baby, not the nurse. Nurses don’t bite). It bruised that way, in a straight line, and then cracked and developed mastitis which tried to kill me a little bit. MOTHERHOOD IS A BEAUTIFUL MIRACLE LOL arrrrrgggggh.
Then everything got easier. I made enough milk, she drank enough milk. Breastfeeding became easy and convenient and I loved it. Not everyone feels this way, including Queen Victoria and she was the QUEEN! But I liked it. It went well.
The girl was easy to wean. At 17 months, she stopped asking and I stopped offering. She was a Le Leche League poster child. My body didn’t even go back to “normal” yet when my boobs (not my brain—most definitely not my brain) made me say to my husband, “I wouldn’t mind being pregnant.”
Here we are. My second child, the boy, is almost 20 months old. And it’s happening. He’s weaning.
On Monday night he nursed.
On Tuesday morning he asked for a waffle instead of Gaga.
Gaga is his name for my boobs. I don’t know why or how he came up with that name but everyone knows because, every time I picked him up from daycare in the last six months, he would jab his cute, stubby finger into my breast bone and yell, “Gaga!” until I either whipped it out or forced him, hysterical, into the car seat so we could Gaga in the privacy of our own home.
On Tuesday night my husband put him to bed and I tried to work up some emotion about the end of the era but I felt nothing but glee. I would be free! I could take ALL THE DRUGS (jk hugs not drugs)! I could drink all the alchomahalz (jk I can’t drink more than one unit or I fall asleep)! I can get a tattoo (maybe)! I can buy REAL BRAS (DEFINITELY)!
On Wednesday, at naptime, the boy remembered Gaga. “GAGA GAGA GAGA!” He screamed. But it was too late! Wasn’t it? My boobs began to question, threatening to break free from their sports-bra enclosure. I left him to scream and put the girl down for a nap. When I came back in he reached for me. I picked him up, feeling like I was going to crumble. I was going to do whatever he asked of me. And he let me hold him. He didn’t ask for anything at all. I put him down and he went right to sleep.
I sobbed. I blubbered. I was breathless, unable to utter a sentence. My husband insisted on video chatting with me from work. He praised me for being strong (he has selfish motives, of course, but also pure ones). I cried and cried and cried and ate chocolate to chase away the dementors and read some articles online that made me feel bad (LLL….I SEEEEE YOU) and some that made me feel better (Kelly Mom, way to go), and did some work, and…
It’s over. No more Gaga.
It was my boobs that were sad, not me. Lady Gaga was crying, not me. She was gonna miss being of use. She was going to miss being gloriously resplendent, unable to be contained by a simple underwire. She was going to miss spending time with that sweet little baby, who always held my hand as he fed. She didn’t want to deflate into withered old hag bags. It wasn’t me! IT WAS GAGA!
I was gripped by a crashing wave of loneliness. My husband told me I’d feel better soon. He agreed it was the hormones making me hysterical, not me. I’m FINE. I’m HAPPY.
Gaga was commander-in-chief. And it’s over. I’m in charge now.
Laura Wheatman Hill lives in Portland, Oregon with her dentist and two children. She blogs about parenting, writes about everything, and teaches English and drama when not living in an apocalyptic dystopia. Her work has appeared on Sammiches and Psych Meds, Her View From Home, Scary Mommy, and Motherwell.
Bedtime is about to get more magical! For the third consecutive year, Shop Disney is bringing the Disney Bedtime Hotline back––and it couldn’t come at a better time.
For a limited time, parents and kids can call 1-877-MICKEY to hear magical messages from their fave Disney pals, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck and Goofy.
The Disney Bedtime Hotline will run for a limited time starting Fri., Apr. 17 through Thur. Apr. 30, 2020 at midnight PT. Kids will be able to hear one message per call, but there’s nothing stopping you from calling back!
Heading to the Happiest Place on Earth soon? Then you’ll want to grab the newest and most festive treat!
The Minnie Mouse Red Velvet Bundt Cake is every bit as delicious as it is gorgeous. The traditional red velvet cake is filled with chocolate chips and raspberry filling, and topped with a vanilla glaze, pink frosting, red and black sprinkles and of course, chocolate mouse ears and polka dot bow.
Currently the only place to nab on one of these sweet treats is by stopping by the Plaza Inn off Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland. The delicacy will only cost you $6.
Inclusion matters. A little boy from Arizona named Oliver has the world captivated after a photo of him looking at a Target ad featuring another young boy in a wheelchair went viral. Demi Porter Garza-Pena and her son, who will be 2-years-old next month, were visiting their local Target recently when the ad caught her little boy’s eye and left him in “awe.”
“Today Oliver stopped me dead in his tracks and turned back around to see this picture that he spotted!” Garza-Pena wrote on her Facebook page Ollie’s World. “He just stared at it in awe! He recognized another boy like him, smiling and laughing on a display at Target.”
“Oliver sees kids every day, but he never gets to see kids like him,” she wrote. “This was amazing! I am so happy that other kids that pass through here with their parents will see this!” she wrote. “There is a lot of focus on representing diversity, but representing people with disabilities is just as important!”
Oliver, has a rare condition called Caudal Regression Syndrome that impairs the development of the lower half of the body.
The ad for Cat and Jack, a Target brand, which has created an adaptive line of clothing for children, has garnered attention from all over. Garza-Pena’s post has been shared over 31,000 times. The post even managed to reach the mother of the child featured in the advertisement. She commented, “This picture has me in tears! Tell Ollie he can do anything he puts his mind to!”
There were plenty of stunning performances at the 92nd Academy Awards, but Idina Menzel’s “Into the Unknown” was a complete showstopper. What started out as subdued rendition with Menzel and Norwegian singer, AURORA quickly become an ensemble production that would make Disney princesses proud.
In a collaboration with nine of the female singers who voice Elsa in non-English version of the Frozen films from all over the world, the performance was both moving and thrilling. In case you missed it, you can watch the heart-stopping song below.
The singers come together to honor Frozen 2’s nomination of “Into the Unknown” for best original song. The lovely ladies included Gisela from Spain, Lisa Stokke from Norway, Maria Lucia Heiberg Rosenberg from Denmark, Willemijn Verkaik from Germany, Gam Wichayanee from Thailand, Takako Matsu from Japan, Kasia Laska from Poland, Carmen Garcia Saenz from Latin America and Anna Buturlina from Russia.
